Скачать или смотреть The Alba by Fender Katsalidis | 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards

The Alba by Fender Katsalidis | 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards
Sustainable Architecture
Bunurong

The Alba reimagines a 1970s office tower into a vibrant aged care precinct comprising 95 residential aged care suites and 60 assisted living apartments. The repositioning is a first of its kind, pioneering a new benchmark in vertical aged care living and demonstrating the possibilities of adaptive reuse.

Guided by the client's Better Together philosophy and ""small-household"" approach, The Alba prioritises resident well-being by designing uplifting, enabling, and familiar environments. Communal areas, accessible design, and adaptable apartments empower autonomy, independence and dignity.

The ground floor was redesigned, transcending the traditional boundaries of aged care buildings. A lively cafe welcomes both residents and locals, fostering intergenerational connections. A flexible wellness studio on the ground floor also hosts community programs promoting active aging and wellness.

Celebrating the existing bold and concrete structure, The Alba transforms limitations into opportunities. Striking 1:2 ratio-shaped windows and existing columns guided the internal floorplate and planning, with balconies in every apartment and communal area offering natural light and fresh air. The glass was replaced with high-performance glazing, improving energy efficiency and subtly transforming the building's appearance.

The floorplate responds to the brief and centres around three-storey voids to encourage inter-floor engagement through shared sights, smells and sounds for residents and their visitors. Rooms are meticulously arranged around existing structural conditions to avoid lengthy corridors and enhance connectivity. Spaces are designed to have a residential scale while meeting Class 9c accessibility standards.

Diverse amenities, including a private rooftop restaurant (operated by Curtis Stone Events), cinema, library, games room, rehabilitation gym, consultation rooms, and a hair salon, offer a seamless blend of assisted living and aged care services, interests and needs. These inclusions create a diverse community, enabling residents to age in place.

An urban art piece at the entrance, designed by Dr Treahna Hamm and Koorrin Edwards, encapsulates Bunurong Country's history. Celebrating local knowledge and history, the installation features the native cherry ballart branch, its fruit and a woven basket.

Collaboration between the client, fire, and structural engineers was paramount for compliance and safety. The transformation from a 1970s Class 5 structure to an inviting Class 9c aged care home required innovative structural reinforcement, access and egress solutions, walls and slab interventions, and strategic window additions.

This exemplary project demonstrates the value of adaptive reuse, saving construction time and materials.

The retained structure significantly reduced demand for new building materials, saving costs on procurement, transportation and embodied carbon. The project offsets 3,370 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent and extends the tower's life by 50 years.

The benefits extend to occupants who can age in place within their neighbourhoods, avoiding relocation to aged care villages. The Alba provides purpose-designed housing surrounded by familiar streets, shops, amenities and support networks.

Post-completion, The Alba has generated invaluable community and social value. The Alba improves health outcomes and social innovation through better access to local healthcare. It has created employment opportunities in the aged care, personal care, healthcare, and administration sectors, quantified at $66.5m in community and social value through SVA Consulting.

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The Australian Institute of Architects Presentation to Juries offered entrants in the 2024 Victorian Architecture Awards an opportunity to address judges with their nominated projects.

Featuring some of Australia’s most prominent architects, Presentation to Juries is a rare opportunity for the public to learn about the influences behind some of Victoria’s most innovative buildings and follow the architectural process from concept to construction.