A render of the Hope & Autumn development of 56 apartments at 51-53 Hope St and 66-76 Autumn St, Geelong West.
The architect behind a $60m, four-storey inner city apartment project admits to “geeking out” at the chance to add to Geelong’s suburban architecture, given the city’s status as Australia’s only UNESCO City of Design.
Austin Maynard Architects co-founder Andrew Maynard leads the design team behind the Hope & Autumn project, a development of 56 one, two and three-bedroom apartments in two buildings at 51-53 Hope St and 66-76 Autumn St, Geelong West.
The Up Property project was submitted through the state government’s Development Facilitation Program, winning such widespread support that the proposal is being held as an example of how to approach suburban in-fill developments needed to meet 2050 residential dwelling targets.
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Mr Maynard said it’s awesome that Geelong is acknowledged as a UNESCO City of Design.
“We geek out on that, because the legacy of Geelong’s design history is one that’s pragmatic solutions-based, not decorative, if you know what I mean,” Mr Maynard told a function to open Up Property’s Hope & Autumn display suite on Pakington St.
“Like wetsuits and cars and utes and how do we use design really thoughtfully to solve real problems?”
The challenge in this case was fitting a four-storey proposal into an area dominated by single-storey detached housing.
“In Geelong, like so many big regional centres, it’s really easy to sprawl when what we need is really thoughtful density,” Mr Maynard said.
A render of the Hope & Autumn development of 56 apartments at Hope St and Autumn St, Geelong West by Up Property show a kitchen, living and dining zone.
“What we really like is the idea of instead of unlocking big bits of land and putting huge towers on and pumping out as many homes as possible, what we really need is great examples like this of where we go from the Australian dream – the quarter-acre block – and how do we thoughtfully increase density next door?
“What’s been really great is the state government has also jumped on board saying that Geelong, as always as the design city, is going to enable a place that hopefully will cause shockwaves in a good way.
“That’s been so great, not only loving Geelong the way it is, but also looking at the fine grain and actually getting time to stand on Pakington St and the surrounds and realising all the ingredients are here and all we have to do is synthesise it and not just land a spaceship – which we see so often these reckless little developments of a concrete box.”
A render of the Hope & Autumn development of 56 apartments at Hope St and Autumn St, Geelong West by Up Property show a master bedroom.
Mr Maynard said the design borrows from the area’s aesthetics, such as pitched roofs, white weatherboard facades and big gardens at the ground level.
They also embody sustainable design features, such as rooftop solar panels on the east-west pitch achieving maximum gain at the busiest times of day – morning and evening, a white aspen panel exterior that not only reflects heat, but encapsulates the thermal mass of the concrete structure, minimising the need for heating and airconditioning.
And acknowledge our culture, such as allowing residents to throw open doors and windows on a warm day to draw in fresh air, meet their neighbours in generous outdoor spaces or designing corridors into apartments so that bedrooms and bathrooms don’t open directly to the living space.
A render of the Hope & Autumn development of 56 apartments at Hope St and Autumn St, Geelong West by Up Property show the exterior gardens between the buildings.
The project also acknowledges its surrounds, foregoing the communal gym and swimming pool that many won’t use but still pay for in owners corporation fees, acknowledging that Geelong is already well stacked in that regard, and focusing on shared outdoor spaces.
“We’ve invested in a big garden – that you will always use – a shared community room, and there’s even a guest suite,” Mr Maynard said.
“What we’ve found, with all the developments we’ve done, is people tell you they need ‘just a one bedroom flat’ and then they’re under price pressure, and suddenly it’s a two bedroom flat, because Mum’s from Brisbane and she comes down for two weeks.
“So in this development, we’ve actually got the guest suite so that you can have mum coming down from Brisbane, and she can be in that guest suite, and you can meet in these shared community spaces.”
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