Linda Townhouses
Hawthorn
Awards:
Winner of City of Boroondara 2012 Urban Design Awards
‘Best small to medium scale multi-dwelling residential development’
This prominent site located within the Heritage precinct of Grace Park in the eastern suburb of Hawthorn in Melbourne was once the home of the Hawthorn Football Club Social Rooms. With its proximity to The Hawks former training ground, Glenferrie Oval, it could be argued the sites history is more notably considered in football circles than heritage forums.
The Grace park residents however guard their heritage precinct with much vigour, to the point where, when the land was presented for sale and they were confronted with the possibility of losing it to a local hospital’s expansion program, they banded together and bought the site themselves to prevent this undesirable outcome and to ensure they could drive its eventual return to its original residential use.
Our scheme to re-establish on the land three high quality dwellings met with no opposition from either council or residents alike. Whilst sitting within a defined heritage precinct, we considered it inappropriate to follow or mimic the prevailing period residential style of the area, as to do so we felt would be to devalue the integrity of what currently dominates the area.
Our approach therefore was to insert a more contemporary arrangement of dwellings in contrast to, but not at odds with this prevailing theme.
Through the use of materials that would reinforce a timeless quality to the work, we have endeavoured to deliver three uniquely styled buildings which sit in harmony with eath other and within the broader context of the area. Their arrangement allows each to present somewhat differently to the street so as to establish an individual presence for all.