MORNINGTON HAMLET

competition entry for medium density housing

in collaboration with Nicholas Putrasia
2021, LIVING VILLAGE DESIGN COMPETITION
Unley, South Australia
organised by SA Housing Authority, Citylab and the Australian Institute of Architects

Mornington House, Soldier’s Memorial Gardens and Mornington Court prefaces the history of the site. For us, the fragments of these architecture and setting seeds the collective memory of the Mornington residents. Large expanse of garden, deep red corrugated roof and painted timber doors, peach toned stonemasonry, cream coloured walls and the wrought iron. A village loses its soul when the places of memory are lost.

Rather than demolishing Mornington Court apartments, we propose to preserve the street elevation, with its charms on the corner . Rather than ending the Memorial Gardens we propose to elongate the axis of the garden deep into the site. Rather than leaving Mornington House on its own, we propose to enrich the historic elevation by extending upwards – carefully weaving existing facade with the new.

The red veranda, the avenue gardens, subtle pilasters, steel balustrades are introduced elements that subtly recalls the past Mornington. New, but kind of strangely familiar.

“‘Tis in my memory lock’d, – and you yourself shall keep the key of it.”
Like Shakespeare we believe these architectural fragments are not just key to the past memory locked, but also future retelling of memories – in Mornington Hamlet.

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Brief of 75 – 100 residential units, achieved 88 units onsite, with majority of the units double aspect and north facing. Proposed structure; cross-laminated timber with incombustible magnesium oxide cladding eliminating cement in fibre cement cladding.