Living Village Social Housing Competition
Adelaide

Our office decided to take part in this Australian Institute of Architects Competition in December 2021.

We took a bit of liberty with the rules this time. Feeling a bit frustrated by the brief, we took over the adjacent memorial parkland to create a somewhat interesting, glowing “block” that activates the square and turns it into the community’s hub. In effect, the facade screening transforms into a visual display or a movie screen, and the existing park becomes activated, alive and interesting.

The thought was that we wanted to reverse the social stigma of affordable housing and make this an aspirational place to call home - that friends would say “What? You get to live in the Square?”

A bit of dignity, of confidence, of being looked up to - if housing can help elevate people, it might be a subtle change - but that one that could really lead to lasting change.

Just in case you were wondering, we participate in competitions to push ourselves and learn. Winning is never the motivation - just that we can test ourselves on different project types, put down on paper some of our thoughts, and push each other to develop new graphics skills that can translate into our real-world projects.