Creating Community – Oak Rise Housing by Cumulus

The concept of human connection emerges frequently in multi-residential architecture and design. It’s befitting as – for many – being part of a wider community is invaluable. Cumulus has channelled this within Oak Rise, a social housing project for Housing Choices Tasmania and the Department of Communities Tasmania. Across 48 homes and communal green spaces, opportunities to engage and interact are prevalent alongside a strong sense of ownership and individuality for its residents.

Scheduled for completion in mid-2023, Oak Rise is located on a sloping site overlooking the Bass Strait in north-west Tasmania. The scope includes four different single-storey designs, each with two or three bedrooms. While the designs are complementary, variations such as patterned façades and alternating colour schemes bring diversity. Also, there’s a series of pop-up windows – a nod to the traditional chimneys of the surrounding towns – that subtly raise the development’s uniform skyline. Cleverly, these distinctions will enhance the rich community feel and, most importantly, offer a sense of identity to the residents – a feeling so often lacking in the sphere of social housing.

“The rooms wrap around the courtyards to give residents a sense of enclosure and privacy, but they are also spaces that can easily open up to the street, connecting each home to the rest of the community,” explains Project Lead Tim Blakeway.

Instead of traditional front and backyards, each home is designed around a north-facing courtyard. Not only do these courtyards create a natural extension for the internal spaces, they also enable well-ventilated and light-filled interiors. “The rooms wrap around the courtyards to give residents a sense of enclosure and privacy, but they are also spaces that can easily open up to the street, connecting each home to the rest of the community,” explains Project Lead Tim Blakeway. Other elements such as slow pedestrian areas, shared driveways, green spaces and parks encourage engagement between neighbours.

Cumulus has chosen to retain much of the existing landscaping, including mature oak and elm trees, which bring warmth to the site and help settle the homes into their surrounds. What’s more, the spring and autumnal colour palettes – realised externally and internally – reflect the beauty of the site’s seasonal changes and create a link
between the natural and built elements.

Oak Rise Housing neatly addresses the fundamental human principles of privacy and interaction in relation to the home. Neither is deemed more important than the other; the strength of this project lies in Cumulus’s ability to balance the two, offering residents places of refuge within an extended community.