Delivering Seniors Housing
The recent completion of 33 new seniors independent living units in Airds, approximately 40km south west of Sydney and delivered by Homes NSW is a small but remarkable addition towards NSW’s growing repertoire of high quality public housing.
Located quite conveniently across the road from Newbrook Shopping Village, the caramel red bricks display a proud presence amongst a sea of neighbouring asphalt-coloured roofs and is easily one of the first things identifiable when coming down Riverside Drive. Although the shopping centre only currently provides a handful of essential retail businesses and would need a future upgrade (most essentially a new resident Airds cafe), for our seniors, taking a stroll over to grab some groceries may become a part of their everyday routine.
Seniors housing as a building typology is unique in that it must support ‘aging in place,’ which is about senior residents maintaining independence in their daily activities and personal care whilst having to deal with physical limitations that come about with aging.
One of the core concepts behind Airds Seniors Housing is that the building creates a ‘micro-village’ with four blocks each with their own visible entry, connected by breezy, efficient corridors and arranged around a central north-facing courtyard. The communal courtyard is highly visible from the units and provides a shared space for residents to nurture their relationship to fellow others and not to mention, the open corridors that occupy the intermediary of the street and courtyard also make wonderful informal communal spaces.
Every unit is fully accessible and has a dual frontage that either looks towards the street and courtyard or occupies a corner outlook, which optimises on cross ventilation and solar access to living rooms as well as bedrooms and are key to having comfortable internal spaces that one can stay in all day. Above-ground private open spaces take opportunity of every outlook and extend the perception of space from within the units with views out into the courtyard and street, whilst ground-level private open spaces are generous and offer deep soil planting in front gardens. Having both inward-facing or outward-facing balconies also provides flexibility for residents’ individual preferences for their sense of enclosure or visibility in the village.
From the street, the angled vertical masonry blade walls separate units but also create rhythm and breaks in the massing with widths that are in harmony with surrounding development. Having to be a robust public housing project certainly does not take away all sense of playfulness in a building, in fact, if we can be bold to suggest, that public housing in this contemporary age can benefit from having more of an original built expression that is distinct in the neighbourhood and rivals in reputation with ‘luxury’ buildings developed for the market.
Now, as new residents settle into their abode, we certainly hope they can find themselves in a comfortable space that they can customise and call their own, make friends, and feel supported and safe within their community. We also look forward to the many planting and deep soil opportunities being used to great capacity and fill the streetscape and courtyard and establish the building with soft greenery on all perimeters.
Authored by Vivian Su
