By Breathe
Nightingale Bowden will be the first of its kind in South Australia. The building is comprised of 34 one and two-bedroom homes and two commercial spaces.
The design of Nightingale Bowden acknowledges and caters to the people who will ultimately live or visit here.
Whether it be on the rooftop, where the resident community can come together, or at the street level, with in-built seating arrangements whereon the broader community can gather, Nightingale Bowden is designed for people, not profit.
The building is situated on a unique island site, overlooking the street to the south and accessing sunlight from the north. Dividing the building into two forms is a vegetated vertical spine, open to the air and revealing the activity on the staircase within.
The building’s materials and form subtly acknowledge Bowden’s industrial past, with a sawtooth profile peeking out above the roofline, and copper motifs across the facade. As with any Nightingale project, living greenery will play a key role across all levels, from ground to rooftop.
The two halves of the building are visually distinguished by variations in colour and profile. With a fluted profile throughout, one half of the facade is natural grey and the other will gradually seep to the green colour of copper patina.
In collaboration with Housing Choices Australia, the South Australian Housing Authority and Renewal SA, Nightingale Bowden is a special building designed to support a genuinely diverse cross-section of Adelaide society.
Visualisation: Meche Studio
We are proud to acknowledge the Kaurna people of the Adelaide Plains, the Traditional Custodians of the land upon which Nightingale Bowden stands. We recognise their continuing connection to land, waters and culture.
Australia’s most awarded sustainable design firm, and its most dependable.
Our Approach
Breathe undertakes meaningful projects we can be proud of — those that align with our purpose and values.
Since we focus on maximising positive impact, many of our projects don’t fit the common definition of ‘architecture’.
We work to understand who we’re designing for. We strive to inspire, engage and support our clients and the broader communities we serve.
We prioritise social, environmental and economic sustainability in every project. We question the status quo to pursue outcomes that are informed by, and seek to better, those that came before.
Above all, we prioritise ethics along with aesthetics, and design without ego, to create the best outcomes for our clients and their communities.