Social Housing with a Difference – Labrador
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Labrador Social Housing is a housing project with a difference. The design is organised around a central communal courtyard that forms the social heart of the project – the objective being to allow connections between residents who can often feel isolated. The layout aims to help create a sense of community and belonging, through the provision of a dignified and uplifting environment to call home.
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Stepping from two-storeys on the street edge, to-four storeys centrally, and five-storeys at the rear of the site, the scale of the architecture responds to the neighbouring built form while maximising privacy from the busy street that forms the projects address.
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COX Senior Associate, Paul Focic
Good quality, affordable housing can change people’s lives.
An enjoyable entry sequence is choreographed whereby residents move through a series of landscaped spaces to the open/covered walkways leading to individual units. A further communal experience is offered at the rooftop where their journey culminates in a landscaped terrace.
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One of the key ambitions for the project was to provide all units with cross ventilation. This idea is achieved through a plan arrangement that separates groupings of units into small clusters and an open corridor system that provides access, shade, cover, and secondary spaces to interact with those in the community.
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Photography: Christopher Frederick Jones