How Kokoda is creating a 0-minute neighbourhood at The Malvern Collective
A lot of developers have looked to try and develop the 15-minute neighbourhood, the term coined by French professor Carlos Moreno.
According to Moreno, each 15-minute city should fulfil six social functions—living, working, supplying, caring, learning and enjoying. It reduces residents’ environmental footprints by boosting green initiatives, creativity and wellbeing at a neighbourhood level and reducing travel, urban density, pollution and loneliness.
Longstanding Melbourne developer Kokoda property, who have been synonymous for quality developments across the Victoria capital since 1997, have created an even more convenient neighbourhood at their new mixed-use precinct, Malvern Collective.
What they've put together they're calling a 0-minute neighbourhood, and it's hard to argue with.
Their Malvern Collective project encompasses a number of apartments above a soon-to-be thriving hospitality precinct that will reshape the affluent suburb.
The middle of the one-acre Station Place site, opposite Malvern Station, was previously a laneway called Station Place. That's just been acquired from the local council, with the view to give that back to the public. It will offer future residents every convenience on their doorstep, from a Woolworths Metro, six hospitality venues, concierge, and a simple commute to the city. Above the precinct will be two striking glass buildings which will home a collection of apartments.
"Malvern Collective is a lifestyle and transported oriented development," Kokoda Founder and Managing Director Mark Stevens says.
"The project is one of the last urban infill apartment sites in Melbourne's east. It offers proper food and beverage options and transport links, which is uncommon for Melbourne."
Stevens says the project will revolutionize the southern end of Malvern.
"While the number one priority is to cater for our residents, we're expecting the hospitality precinct to be popular with those who are commuting in and out of the city, hopping off the train at Malvern, wining and dining, and then continuing their commute home. Nowhere else in Melbourne offers that."
The station is a large commuter pass through and takes four train lines which go north, south and east.
The Malvern Collective apartments have been popular in recent months with owner-occupiers, who see a crane on site, and a clear timeline of construction.
They've not only been drawn to the rare proposition of Malvern Collective and the design of the apartments, but also the superior concierge service, which acts more like a high-end hotel, and is managed in a residents' app. They can order coffee from their room and pick it up before jumping on the train, or have the concierge make dinner reservations, not only for the hospitality in Malvern Collective, but anywhere in Melbourne.
The concierge will connect with locals businesses to create new services, anything from housekeeping to laundry services and dog washing.
As well as the hospitality precinct downstairs which will be shared with the local community, Malvern Collective residents will have exclusive amenity within the project. There will be a co-working space, a cinema, a swimming pool, a wellness centre with hot and cold plunge pools, and a private dining area, bookable through the residents' app.
Kokoda held a design competition for Malvern Collective, selecting Jackson Clement Burrows to collaborate with Carr who have handled the interiors of the project.
Construction on Malvern Collective is well advanced, with completion slated for H1 2024.
