Perpetual Relevance – Nightingale Evergreen by Clare Cousins Architects

Located in Brunswick’s Nightingale Village and featuring a desirable northern aspect over Bulleke-bek Park is Nightingale Evergreen by Clare Cousins Architects. Spearheading many of Nightingale Housing’s core values surrounding sustainability and community, it is an elegant example of medium-density housing imbued with an architectural intent that is both emotive and rational.

Encompassing one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments, as well as teilhaus (German for ‘part of house’) studio-style dwellings, Evergreen is a landmark project for Clare Cousins Architects. As Director Clare Cousins shares, “sustainability is something we consider for all projects. With Nightingale, it was an opportunity to lift the benchmark, eliminating gas, having a fully electrified building using 100 per cent green power, maximising solar collection on the roof, re-use and collection of water and trying to minimise our carbon footprint.”

As Director Clare Cousins shares, “sustainability is something we consider for all projects. With Nightingale, it was an opportunity to lift the benchmark, eliminating gas, having a fully electrified building using 100 per cent green power, maximising solar collection on the roof, re-use and collection of water and trying to minimise our carbon footprint.”

Armed with these sustainable principles, each of the apartments helps residents to minimise their carbon footprint within a framework of excellent design, and Fisher & Paykel appliances were integral to this two-pronged pursuit. Namely, the induction cooktops help to facilitate a gas-free precinct and the DishDrawers and Integrated Refrigerator Freezer are central to the space-saving design solutions applied within the kitchen. As Clare shares, “integrating Fisher & Paykel appliances was critical within our kitchen design, and the DishDrawers work really efficiently in that they only take up single drawer space, so there’s room for further storage underneath.”

Clare adds that the induction cooktops allow residents to live more sustainably without compromising on quality. “For the last five or six years, we’ve been advocating to all our clients about the importance of abolishing gas and electrifying their homes. Often, we find gas cooktops are what our clients are still most emotionally connected to, but generally, once they use an induction cooktop, they never want to go back.” Evergreen resident Kate Ryan attests to this, saying, “because we’re such food people, the appliance we use the most would be the induction cooktop. When you’re used to gas, you kind of wonder about that, but for me, I would never go back.”

As Clare shares, “integrating Fisher & Paykel appliances was critical within our kitchen design, and the DishDrawers work really efficiently in that they only take up single drawer space, so there’s room for further storage underneath.”

Kate was drawn to Evergreen’s strong sustainable ethos and clever design, but it is the sense of community that prevails as the “most important thing about living here,” she shares. Good Cycles bike shop on the ground floor provides wonderful amenity, and the communal laundry on the rooftop – which features seven Fisher & Paykel washing machines and plenty of workspace and storage – fosters interaction. As Clare explains, “as an architect, you can’t force community on residents; it’s more about how we can set up frameworks for a community to thrive.” She adds, “speaking with residents who have been living in Evergreen for nearly a year now, the laundry is one of the most social spaces in the building.” This sentiment alone attests to the deeply considered design of this community-centric, domestic environment.

The design of this building – and that of each building within Nightingale Village – is technically compelling and beautifully executed. Yet peel back the outer layers and, at its very core, this is a place that fosters some of the most fundamental human needs surrounding connection and purpose; an encouraging contribution to the landscape of medium-density development, indeed.