Process over product

The project has been approached with rigour to deliver a high-quality building embedded with sustainable design principles and cultural sensitivity. High standards maintained by the project team, including all consultants enabled us to work with agility to take this project from concept design, through planning to tender in an 11-month period. The City of Darebin’s support of the project through the planning approval process was integral to this outcome and reinforces the importance of government prioritising projects like this to address issues of homelessness.

AHV understands their tenants’ needs far more than we do. It was therefore essential for us to maintain a conscious act of listening and learning before acting. It was critical to check our biases and question design moves, such as the material reductionism and exposed services common to Breathe projects that AHV advised could be triggering for some clients with negative institutional experiences or simply be perceived as unfinished or cheap.

This departure from our typically raw material palette speaks to the importance of process and of listening more generally in social housing projects and projects relating to First Nations Peoples. Concealed services, cork flooring and warm joinery make up the interior finishes, creating a sustainable, natural, and trauma-informed space that is flexible enough for residents to appropriate and make their own. Integrating trauma-informed care into design processes and outcomes, linking the built environment, identity and psychological wellbeing to create non-triggering spaces that nurture wellbeing. 

Budgetary constraints and maintenance concerns are another reality for social housing. Though challenging, these constraints posed an opportunity for creativity to design homes that don’t compromise quality or Breathe’s sustainability targets, while also remaining affordable and durable. Developing partnerships with generous suppliers was integral to this, particularly through a donation of carbon neutral bricks donated by Brickworks. The slender, locally made bricks enabled a high-quality masonry construction typically out of reach on low-cost projects. The synergy between Breathe’s sustainability approach, use of locally made products, and First Nations concepts of connection to Country was crucial to the project: connection to Country being one of seven of AHV’s guiding design principles (AHV and Greenaway Architects, 2016). Questioning the status quo on typical materials, including vinyl flooring (prevalent in social housing projects), allowed us to replace this with natural cork flooring tiles. Replacing a widely used material made from toxic chemicals (that off-gas into apartments) with a purely natural product.

One of the most exciting parts of the project is the collaboration with First Nations artist Tahnee Edwards – a Yorta Yorta and Taungurung woman, designer, and founder of Gammin threads – whose artwork will enliven the common spaces. After consultation and listening, we designed the common spaces raw and real; a blank canvas for Tahnee to create beautiful and culturally meaningful artwork. She’s been able to work directly onto exposed concrete and fibre-cement sheet bringing life to the materials. Tahnee’s work features graphic illustrations with a focus on typography applied with a mixture of painting, wallpaper decals, metal motifs and concrete etchings. Speaking of her work, Tahnee hopes to create a “fun and welcoming environment for people to call home, to take pride in their housing”. The integration of a First Nations’ work into the built fabric marks a shift from designing for communities to designing with them. We hope Tahnee’s work instils pride and ownership over the spaces for the residents; an aspiration for all projects at Breathe.

At this point, a few months into construction, we are acutely aware that we are only witnessing a tiny moment in this building’s life, and that the successes and failures of the project will be judged by myriad people over the years that follow. Looking back, we can distil four clear lessons – first, the importance of process over product; second, the need for unwavering high standards and rigour; third, creativity to make opportunities from constraints; and fourth,  listening through genuine First Nations representation and involvement throughout the life of a project, a trait historically absent from social housing projects. These things colour the architect as creative, diligent, and humble. However, these skills are rendered useless unless there is genuine First Nations collaboration and leadership throughout the entire process – a process that needs to be controlled and determined by First Nations Peoples in pursuit of their right to housing.