Living and Working

Living & Working in Castlemaine:

an attempt to bringing heritage and urbanism together.

Castlemaine is a small town in Victoria has a historical past of the gold diggings. After the gold era, it left as a quiet yet peaceful town provides a great opportunity to enjoy typical Australian suburban life styles in large bungalows with huge backyards. However, the population has been decreased and especially the youth population has been dramatically decreased since they moved to inner suburb areas to find more opportunities such as jobs, education, etc.

The attempt started from increasing densities and providing semi-civic areas by re-developing the main street frontages with proposing home/office spaces on ground floor. Proposing a semi-private/semi-public space on the ground floor will give livability to the streetscapes and increase surveillance.

The town's historical part of the gold diggings is reflected through manipulation of ground, which, together with passive solar design principles ultimately dictates the roofscapes.

The play of materiality of each unit module acts like a shell system: The thick outer skin in brick is a protective layer that responds to the civic language of the context and the thin inner concrete skin to the residential. The play of setbacks between offices and the living spaces was inspired by the town's existing setback rythms between civic and residential buildings along the street frontages.

The unit is entered by a semi private threshold area before entering into the 'outdoor room'. This private courtyard in fact becomes very much part of the house and extends it to the outside, emphasized through materiality ( brick) and greenery, which visually extend both ways.

The overall design presents urban living spaces with respect to the town's history wind... and Brick!