QUEENS WALK HOUSING
Location
Hobart, Tasmania
Client
Housing Choices Tasmania
Year
In Progress
Images
Cumulus
Land of
muwinina
Team
+
REALMstudios
Aldanmark
COVA
Pudding Lane
Red Sustainability Consultants
Kojin Engineering
ERA Planning and Environment
Purcell
WT Partnership
Hubble Traffic Consulting
Aware 365
NVC
Tree Inclined
QUEENS WALK HOUSING
The expansion of an iconic social housing complex in Hobart balances heritage, individuality, and reimagined communal spaces.
Located on the periphery of the city centre, Queens Walk is regarded by the community as a gateway, a point of reference signalling the arrival into Tasmania’s capital. Drawing on the complex’s existing International Style architecture, our contemporary designs for two new buildings and 65 apartments celebrate the development’s iconic heritage while embracing the individual ways we shape our homes.
A continued narrative
The original 1950s buildings were based on a concept of repetitive, ordered, and functional spaces.
Repurposing this idea, we reflected the established buildings’ distinctive elements and introduced subtle and playful variations, resulting in designs that continue Queens Walk’s architectural narrative while remaining contemporary additions.
The new facades’ prominent windows and balconies shift, expand, and contract along individual floors. Textured concrete and vertical bronze fins along the main face of the buildings create a changing rhythm of shadows throughout the day.
We designed the additions as a cluster of parts instead of solid, dominant structures. This gives the buildings a sense of transparency, allows a visual connection to the revitalised outdoor spaces, and breaks down the design’s scale within the city’s landscape.
A reimagined communal space
Alongside our collaborators REALMstudios we looked to create an accessible and reactivated green space for a diverse community.
Developed in consultation with Queens Walk’s residents, the new communal areas include natural playgrounds made from repurposed trees, gravel paths lined with native flora, and productive community gardens.
Most edges, doorsteps and stairs dotting the open areas are designed to double as seating, expanding the possible uses by residents.
Flexible and individual interiors
Looking beyond a repetitive aesthetic often aligned with social housing, we’ve centred the interiors of the one and two-bedroom apartments on a flexible design that allows for expressions of individuality by its residents.
Each apartment enjoys one of four colour schemes that alternate on every floor, calm tones added to the joinery, kitchen, and main doors that contrast the buildings’ subdued yet robust material palette. The larger dwellings have a sliding door to the second bedroom, allowing it to become a study or larger dining room seamlessly connected to the living space.
Outside, small entry niches provide tenants with opportunities to personalise entryways and encourage a sense of ownership while bringing vibrancy to the hallways.
As the project is aimed at providing stable and affordable accommodation for vulnerable Tasmanians, the apartments’ design follows Liveable Housing Design Guidelines and include elements such as generous passageways, step-free thresholds, and accessible showers.
A contemporary boutique hotel, echoing an industrial past, in the heart of Launceston, Tasmania.
Opportunities to design new buildings in the centre of Launceston are often rare. The challenge to build a commercial property, in heritage context and an unusual parcel of land, even more so. Hotel Verge has 86 rooms, meeting spaces for up to 100 people, a gym, laundry and an in-house restaurant. Our design is a nod to the city’s industrial heritage and Tasmanian roots.
2021
Think Brick Awards
Finalist
Location
Hobart Tasmania
Client
Housing Choices Tasmania
Year
In Progress
Images
Cumulus
Land of
muwinina
Team
+
REALMstudios
Aldanmark
COVA
Pudding Lane
Red Sustainability Consultants
Kojin Engineering
ERA Planning and Environment
Purcell
WT Partnership
Hubble Traffic Consulting
Aware 365
NVC
Tree Inclined
A continued narrative
The original 1950s buildings were based on a concept of repetitive, ordered, and functional spaces. Repurposing this idea, we reflected the established building’s distinctive elements and introduced subtle and playful variations, resulting in designs that continues Queens Walk’s architectural narrative while remaining contemporary additions.
The new facades’ prominent windows and balconies shift, expand, and contract along individual floors. Textured concrete and vertical bronze fins along the main face of the buildings create a changing rhythm of shadows throughout the day.
Designed as a cluster of parts instead of solid structures. This gives them a sense of transparency, allows a visual connection to the revitalised outdoor spaces, and breaks down the design’s scale within the city’s landscape.
A reimagined communal space
Alongside our collaborators REALMstudios we looked to create an accessible and reactivated green space for a diverse community.
Developed in consultation with Queens Walk’s residents, the new communal areas include natural playgrounds made from repurposed trees, gravel paths lined with native flora, and productive community gardens.
Most edges, doorsteps and stairs dotting the open areas are designed to double as seating, expanding the possible uses by residents.
Flexible and individual interiors
Looking beyond a repetitive aesthetic often aligned with social housing, we’ve centred the interiors of the one and two-bedroom apartments on a flexible design that allows for expressions of individuality by its residents.
Each apartment enjoys one of four colour schemes that alternate on every floor, calm tones added to the joinery, kitchen, and main doors that contrast the buildings’ subdued yet robust material palette. The larger dwellings have a sliding door to the second bedroom, allowing it to become a study or larger dining room seamlessly connected to the living space.
Outside, small entry niches provide tenants with opportunities to personalise entryways and encourage a sense of ownership while bringing vibrancy to the hallways.
As the project is aimed at providing stable and affordable accommodation for vulnerable Tasmanians, the apartments’ design follows Liveable Housing Design Guidelines and include elements such as generous passageways, step-free thresholds, and accessible showers.
