The site is located in the inner north Melbourne rapidly gentrifying suburb of Preston. As the pressure of housing affordability within inner Melbourne compounds, we set out to propose an affordable, attainable and architectural housing offer within this bubble. We wanted to move the market forward in its aspiration for middle Melbourne.

The 840m2 site would be developed historically into 3 generic townhouses. We increased this density by almost 3-fold to 8 dwellings, a mixture of one, two and three bedrooms. The sizes range from 50 to 90m2. We arranged the architectural massing to replicate 3 dwellings in their appearance in order to mitigate the perception of the density to our neighbours. The intensity affords a reduced land cost per dwellings assisting in affordability.

Simple familiar elements, bricks, weatherboard’s, pitched roofs and paling fences are abstracted and employed in new ways to assimilate into the suburban context. The simple construction techniques also assist in mitigating building cost.

At Albert Street, we have delivered eight homes, rich in space and materials, that are responsive to the local urban landscape and yet do not compromise on quality. The hybrid proposition is one that we would hope can be duplicated and replicated by others to provide considered outcomes at an attainable level.