Davison Collaborative
By Archier
A townhouse development unlike almost any other in Melbourne, Davison Street gives a new meaning to the old adage ‘where there’s a will, there’s a way.’ Working with a model known as Collaborative Development, under which the owners of each of the townhouses pooled resources and their respective professional experience in architecture, sustainability, and project management, we designed three highly sustainable homes on a single block in Brunswick.
Davison Street is home to Archier Director Chris Gilbert, Miranda Louey and their son Arthur, HIP V HYPE Directors Liam Wallis and Katya Crema, and sustainability consultant Peter Steele, Sarah Kearney and baby Mia. The blueprint provided by HIP V HYPE’s Collaborative Development Model created the legal and financial structure that facilitated all three parties to join forces, a solution to the problem of sky-high Melbourne property prices.
The site’s position in a transition zone between an old industrial area and a residential neighbourhood meant we could explore elements of both in our design, so the roofline presents a residential gable to the street and an industrial sawtooth profile to the laneway. Recycled red bricks, concrete lintels and natural timber also nod to both the brick warehouses and the heritage homes that sit side-by-side in Brunswick. Being on the corner of the lane allowed us to build right to the edge of the site, with the front door to each townhouse opening directly onto the laneway. In keeping with the street setback, the front yard is maintained as a shared space – only fitting for a project with collaboration at its heart!
Above all, sustainability was the project’s number one priority, with the result that the homes achieve an 8+ out of 10 star NatHERS rating. We employed passive design principles, ensuring each home has glazing orientated to the north for warmth in winter, external automated block-out blinds to all north and west-facing windows to shade the sun in summer, and cross-ventilation and ceiling fans for cooling. The buildings don’t use any fossil fuels for energy and are targeted to be net carbon-positive in operation. Each is equipped with solar panels and batteries, an energy recovery ventilation system, electric heat pumps for hot water, and hydronic heating. Recycled and locally-sourced materials were used where possible and the high-performance BINQ windows are double-glazed.
Location: Brunswick, VIC
Builder: HIP V. HYPE
Construction: Recycled Brick
Size: 140m2 each
Completed: 2020
Photography: Tess Kelly
Awards: Winner / ArchiTeam Medal / ArchiTeam Awards. Commendation / Residential New / ArchiTeam Awards. Commendation / Residential Architecture / The Design Files Awards. Longlisted - Dezeen Awards - Housing Project. Commendation / Sustainability / Houses Awards. Shortlisted / New House Under 200m2 / Houses Awards.
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Davison Collaborative
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Davison Collaborative
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About the
Professional
Archier creates engaging architectural spaces and bespoke products, with an emphasis on honest, responsive design and efficient construction.
ARCHIER is an architectural practice with studios in Hobart and Melbourne. We work across residential and commercial sectors and have a particular interest in the relationship between architecture and landscape. We are a privately owned company and have four principals. One of our four directors is also Landscape Architect and this gives us a unique skill-set to work seamlessly across the two domains of Architecture and Landscape.
We work across a range of scales; for a range of clients. Our work encompasses residential, commercial and government architecture; public and private landscape projects; as well as the design and manufacture of furniture and lighting products
Our innovative designs are focused on material honesty, thermal performance and constructability, as we strive for affordable and responsive architecture that contributes to the public domain.
We are interested in projects that span architecture, urban design and landscape and embrace the mantra that design is delivery. Our practice utilises BIM extensively to automate and streamline our design work-flow and we are increasingly leveraging BIM to not only aid and support the delivery and construction of our work; we are also using it directly with Off Site Manufacturers to automate the production of timber based floor, wall and roof elements directly from the coordinated design model.
Our directors have over 25 years of combined industry experience and were drawn together to create an inclusive practice that is truly outcome orientated. We have won awards across a range of disciplines connected to the built environment that recognise our design excellence and innovation, along with our commitment to sustainable buildings and the environment.
As a practice, we have worked on large scale commercial projects with a construction value in excess of $100M through Joint Venture arrangements with Hayball Architects and we have lead multidisciplinary teams for complex commercial projects over $5M in value.
We relish the opportunity to work collaboratively with clients and large project teams to incorporate specialist knowledge and expertise into our work. We are data driven and focused on quality project outcomes. We have proven project experience leading complex projects in sensitive environments and have been recognised for our contextual approach to design.
We have also been awarded for our approach to sustainability and always seek not only to optimise the thermal performance of our buildings, but also to consider the life cycle cost of our material choices.