reimagining the future aged care design competition
in 2023 the australian government launched a design competition intended to illuminate the design guidelines which were developed out of the royal commision into aged care.
jacqueline bartholomeusz, lorraine calder, peta miskovich and i submitted a scheme in december 2023.
in may 2024 the winners of that competition were announced. our scheme was highly commended by the competition jury.
The competition jury had this to say about our scheme..."A sophisticated building proposition that merges family clusters and personal resident room configurations within an organic circulation and socialisation spatial weave bounded by landscape. Cascading gardens with innovative and functional 'tree columns' and a 'main street activity centre' holds this two-neighbourhood building composition together.
"A creative jigsaw of household, private and socialisation space presents as an exciting and varied yet fundamentally legible and enabling environment.
"The Jury was intrigued by the intelligent hierarchy of internal resident 'neighbourhoods' expressed as small clusters of bedroom suites with discrete get-together spaces, integrated by larger shared living spaces to 'host a variety of ordinary home activities' and sun and light filled outdoor terraces 'to meet residents of adjoining households'.
"The Jury noted that the proposal presented as an appropriately scaled development that invited incidental resident and local socialisation. At ground plane the 'main street' configuration and community integration and controlled connectivity to upper residential levels is well handled.
"The Jury commended the significant areas of landscape and vegetation - at all levels and in multiple locations – as being of real value to residents and to staff providing a sensory natural environment of pleasure and beauty within the urban context.
"The Jury also commended the detailed spatial planning evident in the proposal which interrogated the Principles and Guidelines with creative flourish and innovative translation."
design and drawings by jacqueline bartholomeusz, lorraine calder, peta miskovich and david sutherland.
The scheme at a glance, illustrating the underlying principles of the design together with a site development plan
Bianca's day, a 400 word description of the life of an imagined occupant, a requirement of the submission, together with perspective vignettes.
the house, illustrating in more detail the planning of the building.
the garden, a board describing the landscaping, highlighting the significant and integrated floor-level gardens incorporating tree canopy at every level
early days of exploring external garden terraces rising up within the building linked to each floor
early days of exploring external garden terraces rising up within the building linked to each floor
following along that line of exploration
a sinlge run of stepped terraces
putting those thoughts into a drawing that would be more understandable to other team members!
further analysis of that approach
further analysis of that approach
a variant- "giant steps""
more exploration
starting to separate upper levels to provide daylight to a basement drop off and entry
sectional explorations
further exploration
describing where the linked garden terraces would be located
having created the constituent parts, now starting tp push and pull those around
how that might appear
using variety to avoid institutional sameness
using variety to avoid institutional sameness
using variety to avoid institutional sameness
using variety to avoid institutional sameness
using variety to avoid institutional sameness
analysing sunshine and shade on the garden terraces
further exploration
looking for a better approach: laying out the ringwood design on the site to see if the principle holds
terraces
exploring the ringwood approach so as to understand better the implications
how that approach could plan out
one approach to integrated garden terraces with deep soil planting
further exploration
further exploration
further exploration
looking at communal facilitiy location
looking at communal facilitiy location
how the scheme could plan out
how the scheme could plan out
how the scheme could plan out
deep soil structures- the first appearance of the tree towers
tree tower exploration
further exploration
further exploration
further exploration
exploration of optimal location of household communal areas
exploration of optimal location of household communal areas
exploration of optimal location of household communal areas
exploration of optimal location of household communal areas
