Award of Merit:

Cumulus for Goulburn Street Housing

Founded in Tasmania in 2011, Cumulus is an architecture and interior design studio focussed on creating unique and respectful residential, tourism, commercial, and social housing spaces. We approach every new project with a fresh perspective, and we understand that great design ideas can come from anywhere: our community, our team, and clients. That is why our studio is centred on the idea of collaboration, creating open conversations with clients, stakeholders, and communities to get the best from our designs. Whether master planning for a tourism hub in a natural world heritage area or bringing together a social housing project in a dense urban centre, we maintain these conversations throughout a project’s lifespan, allowing us to explore a design’s possibilities, find new solutions, and respond to changes and challenges. 

Our studio currently has more than 40 dedicated architects, designers, and administrative team members working across our Hobart, Launceston, Melbourne, and Adelaide offices. Despite the distances, we operate as a single entity and use our collective resources to form, critique, and test new ideas, drawing inspiration from our environment to inform our decisions. Our architects not only assist each other but also regularly participate as tutors, guest lecturers, and mentors at several institutions, such as the Foundry and the University of Tasmania’s School of Architecture and Design — participation we encourage and allow for through a flexible work environment. 

We extend this support to personal education and professional development. Several of our registered architects, for example, began their journey with us as Graduates of Architecture and were closely supported by our studio to receive their official registration. 

While most of our design team members have university qualifications, we recognise that access to higher education can be difficult for some and we seek to employ team members from other educational pathways whenever possible. Working closely with local not-for-profit organisations, such as AFL SportsReady, we regularly offer traineeships that increase the diversity and capability of our team. Beyond these, we regularly organise additional internal and external staff training, such as leadership training, mental health awareness, environmental sustainability strategies, and cultural engagement. 

Staff volunteering and community participation are also encouraged and supported at our studio. As volunteers and in leadership roles, many of our staff contribute to local not-for-profit organisations and community initiatives, including the Design Tasmania Board, The Cancer Council’s Biggest Morning Tea, Architects Declare, Emerging Architecture Graduates, and the Findlay Project.

About the Project

Located in a heritage precinct on the edge of Hobart’s city centre, Goulburn Street Housing is a group of 25 social housing apartments built to address the lack of accommodation for the elderly and disabled in the city. Situated on a former council car park connecting two streets, the design is centred on the concept of a micro village and formulated around the idea of making social housing a seamlessly integrated part of the built landscape. Rather than being a dense and dominant single building, Goulburn Street Housing’s cluster of forms are respectful to the history, textures, and rhythm of the neighbourhood. 

The various facades, which step and shift in height and depth, take cues from the architecture, materials, and unadorned apertures of the surrounding Georgian homes. The cloudy silver brickwork on the different exteriors is contrasted by a red brick, further breaking down the mass of the building, and allowing the development to sit sympathetically within the precinct. The designs for the development’s two street-facing facades address the different aesthetic values of both streets. 

All one and two-bedroom apartments are designed to Australian Liveable Housing Guidelines and complemented by a balance of indoor and outdoor spaces, prioritising natural light, ventilation, and individuality — a considered combination that subverts public housing stereotypes in Australian cities. Each apartment enjoys a relationship to the outside on at least two sides for cross ventilation with access via a covered walkway. The apartments are designed to be accessible, with generous circulation and step-free thresholds to courtyards and balconies. 

The balconies and windows take into consideration the intended resident demographic and are deliberately designed within the building form for greater privacy. The interiors are complemented by subtle pastel colours, which make the most of the natural light throughout the open spaces and provide relief from the otherwise modest material palette. The interior’s open design combines with the cluster’s outdoor weather-protected corridors to allow effective cross ventilation, decreasing the overall energy consumption and ongoing running costs of each apartment. 

As the project formed part of a broader community discussion on the future of Hobart's urban landscape, our concept looked beyond the design and focussed on what the development could contribute to the city as a whole. The project highlights how a considered approach to higher density living — one that looks beyond the sombre designs commonly associated with public housing — can complement the unique character of a city.

Category: Place

Designers and Project Team:
Cumulus project team:
Keith Westbrook
Peter Walker
Claire Austin
Jet O’Rourke
Rosella Sciurti
Andrew Grimsdale

Collaborators:
Builder - Fairbrother Construction
Structural, civil & hydraulic engineer – Aldanmark
Mechanical, electrical, data & fire engineering – COVA
Town Planning – ERA
Traffic consultant - Milan Prodanovic
Heritage consultant – Purcell
Quantity surveying - WT Partnership
Environmental consultant - Red Sustainability Consultants
Landscape Architect - Urban Initiatives
Building Surveyor - Green Building Surveying