New Day Haymarket

Habitat for Humanity Australia

Architecture

Interiors

Habitat for Humanity Australia (HFHA) is a registered community housing provider focused on the adaptive reuse of disused properties into affordable housing for vulnerable people at risk of homelessness.

VIGILANTI discovered a large, vacant commercial space in the heart of Haymarket during our on-going engagement with the Haymarket community, with great potential to be converted into social housing. Within the City of Sydney, 1 in 8 commercial properties are vacant, while the CBD has the lowest levels of affordable & social housing available for vulnerable members of our community.

Pitching this site to Habitat for Humanity, VIGILANTI then partnered with the not-for-profit housing provider to develop a concept design proposal for 6 x boarding house rooms, with ensuite bathrooms, a shared communal area, on-site office & shared laundry.

After developing initial concept plans illustrating the proposal, the project was able to secure $1.6 million in grant funding through the Housing Innovation Fund program.

Partnering with Youth of the Streets (YOTS), HFHA is embarking on an ambitious project to convert a vacant commercial space in the heart of Sydney's Haymarket precinct into a affordable housing for young adults & their children with a background of family & domestic violence, a first in Australia. The location is perfect for youth housing, being close to amenities, educational facilities & affordable food options.

The project is also a pilot aimed at unlocking the vast amount of vacant commercial property across Sydney's CBD into housing to address the homelessness crisis.

VIGILANTI was engaged as the Principal Architect & Interior Designer for the team of specialist consultants to navigate the development approval & construction documentation process.

Architecture

This project aims to convert a 260sqm vacant commercial space, the top storey of an existing commercial building, into affordable housing. The building, is over 100 years old, & located in a prominent corner in the heart of Sydney's Chinatown. As the project proposes changing the use of an existing commercial property into residential use, with active tenancies on the levels below, there were numerous complex mix of planning & building code compliance issues that needed to be carefully navigated, including:

Identifying project risks at feasibility & due diligence stage ensuring they are appropriated addressed early in the the process design stages.
- Proactively proactively addressed planning & building code compliance risks, including:
- avoiding changes to the external facade while completing acoustic & window safety upgrades, retaining the
- avoiding major amendments to the existing timber structure while accommodating new services for 6 x rooms & associated amenities.
- developing a clear fire engineering strategy at concept design stage with the fire engineer to minimise the number of performance solutions required
- carefully coordinating wet areas & kitchens to allow for simple integration into the existing building structure & services infrastructure
Providing detailed & comprehensive documentation for development approval, allowing the project to successfully obtain approval in 6 weeks with minimal RFI's.
Managing a limited grant funding budget that cannot be exceeded.
Providing regular briefings & design reviews with the Client & service provider, & ensuring feedback is incorporated directly into the design.

The final design outcome was welcomed by HFHA & YOTS as it achieved their unique needs for purpose-built youth housing, including:

6 private studios, with individual ensuites & kitchen facilities, avoiding the conflicts that can arise from shared amenities.
2 studios include an additional bedroom to allow young parents to be housed with their children
A large communal living area to provide a choice to socialise if desired, with a larger kitchen suitable for YOTS to run independent living training programs
A on-site office for YOTS, with a private bathroom for overnight stays, strategically located to provide direct line to all common areas for added safety

We look forward to the project being completed as the first-of-its kind youth housing in the heart of Sydney's CBD.