Brisbane Housing Company’s mission is to build and maintain quality affordable homes for people in need. Their vision is to create liveable communities, empower lives and enable transformation through provision of affordable housing. The new multi-residential development at Hood Street encapsulates this through the provision of a vertical senior’s community. The development facilitates inclusiveness and socialisation. The building provides an amplitude of communal spaces, with recreational areas provided at each level, thus encouraging interaction and socialisation within the development.

Arbour on Hood Street provides occupants with a mix of apartment types to cater for varying needs, lifestyle and budget requirements. Design quality, adaptability, aging in place and affordability has been the mantra of the development, with these design considerations being the driving the process. To enable aging in place, apartments have been designed to achieve a gold standard with wider walkways, doors, thresholds and entry zones. Ease of pick up and drop off and security has also been a major consideration at the ground level. Each unit has a major entry statement, which has been designed markedly different for wayfinding, resident recognition and a sense of ownership and pride. Each apartment opens onto a wide communal space which references the familiar Queenslander architectural language, with VJ cladding and wide open spaces. This openness aids in legibility, freedom of movement and comfort for residents – affording opportunity for social interaction.

Hood Street has been designed to reflect the existing urban context, paying homage to the materiality, form and environment in which is sits. The linear language of the façade provides articulation and a breakup of the mass of the form. Vertical batten screens, in varying rhythms, dress the building facades in an articulating manner, to compliment the verticality of the form. The external building materials vary in texture to provide relief and interest for the user. The angular projection to the southern façade signifies the entry and arrival point for users, thereby providing elements of way finding which are integrated into the architectural form. In addition the entry roof provides protection from external elements, providing a point of refuge for residents and visitors. This linear and angular language is carried throughout the building both internally and externally.

Outdoor spaces are an integrated design element within this building, with a myriad of communal and recreational areas for residents and visitors to meet, interact, socialise and relax. Elevated outdoor spaces have been provided throughout the development to provide an integrated building that is enjoyable and usable all year round, responsive to the sub-tropical environment. Semi-outdoor spaces cater to the subtropical environment and foster the connective indoor/outdoor nature of many Queensland style homes. Balconies provide private outdoor access for each resident, with natural lighting and ventilation to the units, as well as providing articulation and interest to the external building form. The placement of the balconies to the Southern side, affords opportunities for residents to partake in casual surveillance of the street. In addition, the entry courtyard further affords opportunity for the residents and visitors to partake in surveillance, thereby deterring negative behaviour.