People Focussed Architecture: Nightingale Leftfield by Kennedy Nolan.

Passing through Melbourne’s bustling Brunswick you may have caught a glimpse of the Nightingale Leftfield, glowing like a beacon in the afternoon sun. Located on Duckett Street, the multi-residential building comprising 28 apartments is Kennedy Nolan’s first project with Nightingale Housing.

With oversized columns and an urban presence that veers into the civic, Leftfield’s first impression is one of Piranesian proportions. Classic pressed-red bricks, a hallmark of Melbourne vernacular, and warm pink tinted precast are offset with playfully supersized geometric cut-outs that can be spotted from the neighbouring Upfield train line.

It’s the latest for the architect-as-developer-led project, The Village—a collection of six neighbouring buildings, each designed by local architects, including Breathe, Clare Cousins and Austin Maynard. All connected by the environmental and community-led ethos of the Nightingale model, The Village is an outlier in Australia’s notoriously profit-driven property sector.

Kennedy Nolan took advantage of the buildings’ surrounding context, with south-facing views towards the city and balconies facing north looking over the communal Duckett St Village—an invitation to engage with the developing community streetscape.

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This approach shaped the perimeter, with the studio creating moments to connect and interact, from chance encounters on the building’s open-air staircase or on the rooftop terrace, which is home to the shared laundry and a veggie garden.

Inside, the space is just as bold as the architects set about to work with the Nightingale principle to do more with less. “For us this meant identifying fundamental parts of the building and thinking about ways to manipulate or deploy them to make our Nightingale feel domestic, warm, textural and particular,” states co-principal Patrick Kennedy.

The facade’s geometric supergraphics follow inside but on a smaller scale. Triangular patterns on the kitchen cupboards offer an easy statement, without blowing the budget. Colours are distinctly Australiana—think burnt orange, eucalyptus and charcoal, matched with timber, cork and raw brass for surfaces that feel touchable and authentic. These elements work together to frame an interior that balances the functional with the textural.

It’s an art to make a space beautiful, and one that is often overlooked in affordable housing. “Early in our design process, we were careful to learn the lessons from the predominant developer-driven projects which are frequently constrained by the opinions of selling agents and thus result in interiors which are at best inoffensive and largely bland and visually arid,” Patrick continues. “As such, it was important for us to create a single scheme for 28 dwellings that was also able to provide a setting for a diversity of people and their things.”

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Bland Leftfield isn’t. Careful spatial consideration was required to create interiors with personality within the modest footprint. Small interventions such as the suspended timber storage platform above the apartment entrance and the provision of hallway storage systems that compress areas result in both useful amenity and spatial complexity.

Besides its sustainable qualities, in which there are many—from scoring a 7.5 star on the NatHERS thermal rating, being 100% fossil fuel free in operation and offering access to a shared basement with 15 car share vehicles. The project also looks at sustainability through a sociological lens. Following the Nightingale model, 20% of the apartments are pre-allocated to an affordable housing provider and purchaser, with priority given to key service workers, individuals with a disability and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

The project is an exemplar of the type of architectural work Kennedy Nolan actively seeks out. Back in 2019, when we interviewed co-principals Patrick and Rachel, they were working on this very development noting at the time how this project is “a good encapsulation of how we are approaching the future—making architecture which is positive and people focussed—interesting, engaged and energised and keeps our culture strong.” We salute them.

Interview: Patrick Kennedy and Rachel Nolan of Kennedy Nolan.

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[Images courtesy of Kennedy Nolan. Photography by Tom Ross.]