Advancing with Agility – Nightingale Housing
Nightingale’s commitment to delivering high quality housing built for people and the planet is resolute. With four celebrated projects under its belt and another 13 currently scheduled for completion around Australia over the next two years, Nightingale Housing has been the marker of a shift in the future of multi-residential housing. And, despite recent changes to the Nightingale model, Co-Founder and Managing Director Jeremy McLeod is certain the organisation’s mission “to create housing that people can afford, which fosters deep social connection and is kind to a planet and a housing system in crisis,” still rings true.
Recognising deep cracks in the way Australian housing is designed, built and, above all, commodified, Jeremy and fellow Co-Founder of Breathe Tamara Veltre established Nightingale in 2016. “We looked across Melbourne, and we saw that housing was unaffordable, badly designed and poorly built. We knew it could be better,” Jeremy says. Today, Nightingale is a stand-alone not-for-profit organisation creating socially, financially and environmentally sustainable housing steered by excellent design.
The Commons in Brunswick, completed in 2013 and designed by Breathe, kick started it all. Winner of the National AIA awards for Residential Architecture: Multiple Housing and Sustainable Architecture, amongst others, and the subject of extensive community engagement and response, it signalled a growing desire for sustainable, design-led multi-residential housing. Nightingale 1 followed, as well as Nightingale 2 by Six Degrees Architects and Nightingale Brunswick East by ClarkeHopkinsClarke, with multiple projects scheduled for completion this year in Melbourne, Adelaide, Ballarat and Fremantle.
While the projects vary in design and response to context, ideas surrounding material reductionism, shared facilities and access to light and green spaces are consistent. Nightingale homes are 100 per cent carbon neutral in operation and located close to public transport and public amenities. What’s more, they’re sold at cost through a ballot to owner occupiers with 20 per cent of each project allocated to community housing providers and a further 20 per cent given to priority balloters consisting of key services workers, Indigenous Australians, people with a disability, carers and single women aged 55 and over.
As Co-Founder Jeremy McLeod explains, “we’ve always aimed to revolutionise the way we live together by providing housing that is socially, financially and environmentally sustainable, and this focus has not changed. We learn and grow from each project we do and are continuously challenging the status quo of the housing system.”
While many of these guiding principles remain, a string of changes were made to the Nightingale model in April 2021, including restructuring from a social enterprise to a not-for-profit organisation and moving away from a licensing model. Despite most of the early Nightingale developments seeing success in terms of the organisation’s overall objectives, countless more never made it off the ground. Something needed to change.
The original model saw the elected architect handle all aspects of project delivery – from site acquisition, securing funding and construction delivery to community engagement and handover. As Jeremy says, each architect was the driving force behind each project. “They would find the site, run the feaso [feasibility], buy the site, raise millions of dollars in equity, secure millions of dollars of debt, ensure the project ran on time and on budget and simultaneously design an exceptional housing outcome.” This, ultimately, proved to be a hugely onerous task and, resultingly, of 33 Nightingale licenses issued to architects only a handful were realised.
Nightingale Chair Angela Perry reflects, “this has, in part, been due to the difficult nature of raising capital. Many architects who were ready to embark on their first Nightingale project struggled to secure funding.” This, paired with the desire to ensure Nightingale could continue to deliver on its objectives around cost, community and environmental performance, was the catalyst for bringing the entire process in-house.
As well as this significant change, the decision to shift to a not-for-profit instigated much public discussion. This triggered varying responses from within the industry, with some concerns voiced around a lack of diversity and transparency in how the newly structured not-for-profit would run with Jeremy as Managing Director of the six-person board. However, he is unwavering in his belief that these decisions have been made for the benefit of current and future residents and to “enshrine” the Nightingale model. “Nightingale can now never ever be monetised,” he says. “It can’t be owned or controlled, and no one can ever make a profit from it – all profits are returned to mission.”
Despite controversy around the organisation, Nightingale’s commitment remains largely the same, and there is recognition from within that the model will continue to evolve. Bringing about change and stimulating positive outcomes requires a nimble and vigilant attitude in any industry; in terms of the current housing crisis and the planet, Nightingale’s goal posts haven’t shifted as such but there is an agility in the game plan. As Jeremy explains, “we’ve always aimed to revolutionise the way we live together by providing housing that is socially, financially and environmentally sustainable, and this focus has not changed. We learn and grow from each project we do and are continuously challenging the status quo of the housing system.”
Housing that enhances liveability within a framework of environmental sustainability and affordability has a well-earned place in the property conversation. While ongoing, Nightingale queries our consciousness around multi-residential housing; as a model, it has heralded a new way of thinking and acting that remains influential within a sector calling out for reform.
