An Inherent Multiplicity – Nightingale Village
Nightingale Village in Melbourne’s inner-north is the first realisation of Nightingale’s triple bottom line approach to housing applied at a precinct-level scale. Comprising 203 homes across six multi-residential buildings, the Village is grounded in Nightingale’s longstanding principles surrounding social, environmental and economic sustainability. Deeply embedded in an appreciation for how design can not only foster but actively trigger authentic communities, Nightingale Village is a compelling archetype for the future of medium-density development in Australia.
Located between Sydney Road and the shared bike and pedestrian path bordering the Upfield train line, the Village is uniquely positioned within a thriving and previously under-activated pocket of Brunswick. As Jeremy McLeod, Co-Founder of architecture studio Breathe and Nightingale Housing, explains, this collection of sites was initially destined for a dubious future as a large-scale property development project. Thankfully, the previous developer sold the site with a planning permit attached prior to commencing construction, and Nightingale Housing stepped in. “Nightingale Village was conceived to liberate the street from cars, make it a place for people, to create a fossil fuel-free precinct, and to bring housing, equity and social justice to a future that was better than the past,” Jeremy shares.
“Nightingale Village was conceived to liberate the street from cars, make it a place for people, to create a fossil fuel-free precinct, and to bring housing, equity and social justice to a future that was better than the past,” says Jeremy McLeod, Co-Founder of architecture studio Breathe and Nightingale Housing.
Spread over three neighbouring blocks, ParkLife by Austin Maynard Architects and Evergreen by Clare Cousins Architects sit at the top end of the precinct, with desirable northern aspects over Bulleke-bek Park, while the southern edges of these two buildings face Duckett Street where the ground floor tenancies – a florist, a bike shop and a Japanese restaurant, cafe and store – enhance the village-like feel. Closed to traffic, this laneway is the foundation for gatherings and neighbourly interactions, and a clear civic gesture in keeping with Nightingale’s community-driven ethos. Leftfield by Kennedy Nolan, CRT+YRD by Hayball and Nightingale Skye House by Breathe sit across the way, and Architecture architecture and Breathe’s Urban Coup is tucked behind this row at the precinct’s southernmost tip.
As Nightingale’s CEO Dan McKenna explains, the not-for-profit housing provider’s core purpose is “to revolutionise the way we live together.” He adds, “it’s something we truly believe in, and that involves pushing ideas around sustainability, community and what affordability means.” All three pillars converge across Nightingale’s growing portfolio – including The Commons, Nightingale 1, Nightingale Anstey and Nightingale Wurru wurru biik just up the road as well as other notable projects in Victoria, New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia – yet of all of Nightingale’s projects to date, the Village is arguably the most compelling community-minded model of them all.
Connection exists on two different scales: firstly, within each building, and secondly, throughout the Village at large. Each of the six buildings possesses thoughtfully conceived communal spaces – including the amphitheatre-style steps atop ParkLife and CRT+YRD’s north-facing rooftop terrace with greenery and bench seats – and the respective designs facilitate a lifestyle grounded in commonality and unity. As Dan says, “we really care about how we design our spaces to enable those small-scale interactions that form relationships between neighbours.” Pleasingly, the residents attest to this, offering anecdotes of meaningful and friendly encounters – beers on Friday evenings doing laundry together and a general air of familiarity and camaraderie in their everyday experience of this place.
Fittingly, Nightingale’s approach to development is embedded in this same sense of rapport, and its decision to partner with Fisher & Paykel reflects this philosophy. Backed by a seven-year partnership, their work across this significant project encapsulates their mutual values surrounding sustainability and excellent design. As Dan says, “our partnership with Fisher & Paykel has allowed us to continue to grow and achieve our mission to deliver high quality, sustainable homes for more people.” Specifically, Fisher & Paykel’s seamless Induction Cooktop was a key factor in negating the need for gas within the precinct, and its efficiency-led products help people change habits in the real world by understanding how to better care for their clothes or reduce food wastage through optimal storage. Dan adds, the partnership “has really benefited the residents through things like extended warranties, access to support and continued engagement and involvement.”
“At Nightingale Village, we see a real commitment to an architecture of connection and the benefits of bringing together some of Australia’s best architects around a vision to put in place the conditions for communities to grow and evolve within a zero-carbon green-energy infrastructure,” says Fisher & Paykel’s Executive Vice President of Product Lines, Katrina Glenday.
Fisher & Paykel’s Executive Vice President of Product Lines, Katrina Glenday, is enthused by this partnership. “Nightingale challenges the status quo in the housing industry, and we have a shared, bigger picture objective to create better outcomes for users in terms of sustainability. We know great design doesn’t exist in isolation – as we continue our own carbon-zero journey, good partners can help us achieve greater and faster change,” she says, adding, “at Nightingale Village, we see a real commitment to an architecture of connection and the benefits of bringing together some of Australia’s best architects around a vision to put in place the conditions for communities to grow and evolve within a zero-carbon green-energy infrastructure.”
Not only do Fisher & Paykel’s all-electric appliance solutions and support around product packaging and recycling contribute to Nightingale’s operational carbon-zero goal, but its well-designed, refined aesthetic aligns with Nightingale’s reductionist interiors. “The integration or inclusion of products like induction cooktops, DishDrawer dishwashers, and refrigeration solutions serve as useful tools in the creation of highly functional, aesthetically unified kitchen-living spaces,” Katrina says. This approach is critical in the Village’s one and two-bedroom apartments, and even more so in its handful of Teilhaus (German for ‘part of house’) studio-style dwellings. As Katrina says, these are “considered apartment interiors, where the planning and detailing often found in beautiful, bespoke homes have been applied to these more compact spaces. Everything has been carefully considered and nothing is left to chance.”
Alongside the relevant environmental and ecological alignment between Nightingale Housing and Fisher & Paykel, Katrina is particularly buoyed by the Village’s pioneering approach to liveability in a multi-residential framework. The social aspects garnered from a life lived here are a fitting complement to Fisher & Paykel’s own socially driven and design-led pursuits. As she says, there is “a tangible generosity you can see expressed in the Village’s landscape – the emphasis on walking and biking, places to sit and green spaces, and in the specification of long-lasting materials that are aesthetically interesting.” She adds that the newly activated Duckett Street and the Village’s myriad circulation spaces create wonderful opportunities to “bump into a neighbour and say hi,” facilitating the unmistakeable sense of community Nightingale champions.
The inherent multiplicity of the Village’s community is undoubtedly one of its key strengths. It’s a factor that can be traced to many things – Nightingale Housing is a persuasive model for first home buyers typically priced out of desirable, inner-city areas, but its mission to create better quality and more sustainable housing also holds great appeal. What’s more, its allocation process – which sees the majority of its dwellings allocated via a ballot system with the remainder going directly to Housing Choices Australia and Women’s Property Initiatives – stimulates further diversity amongst residents. As Dan says, “it gives people who would not usually have access to secure housing the opportunity to live in a diverse, mixed community.”
Over the past few months, residents have moved in, plants have grown and small businesses have opened their doors, and as such, this collection of six independent yet inherently connected buildings is becoming a community.
At Clare Cousins Architects’s Evergreen, the purchasing resident group was “very diverse,” Clare Cousins shares, adding, “there are first home buyers, families with children, elderly people, and Women’s Property Initiatives acquired four of our apartments, which was fantastic.” Each building throughout the precinct enjoys this same plurality, resulting in a varied group of residents who are bound by a shared belief in Nightingale Housing and its core purpose.
Over the past few months, residents have moved in, plants have grown and small businesses have opened their doors, and as such, this collection of six independent yet inherently connected buildings is becoming a community. Just as the name suggests, it’s an urban village, and this compelling paradigm is the upshot of Nightingale’s collaborative and equitable approach to housing. As Dan reflects, though the organisation’s mission is complex and deeply nuanced, for him, the lasting effect of its work is indisputable. “Looking back on what could have been on this site and seeing what’s there now – the rich, thriving and diverse communities, the high quality of design and the activated streetscapes that give so much back to this local area – that’s what I’m most proud of.”
