Bushlands is a medium-density housing development made up of 20 semi-detached townhouses. With the Wellington region gradually shifting from a stand-alone housing model, the build caters to the ever-growing housing demand that exists both locally and nationally.
Voxell was engaged by the client with a challenge to design space-saving architectural dwellings, able to maximise the functional use of the existing site, while not compromising the quality of both the internal and urban environment. In achieving this, natural light and external views were fundamental considerations. The internal planning has been designed to provide outdoor living spaces with a strong indoor/outdoor flow while offering a sense of seclusion from within the internal living environment - with uninterrupted views outward over the adjoining reserve due to the elevation of the site. This site location reinforces a strong outdoor connection for residents, with its close proximity to local walking trails throughout the adjoining reserves.
Enhancing the urban setting and communal spaces of the development played an integral part in the design, ensuring vegetation and landscaping was employed to strongly support the spatial configuration of the dwellings. This strongly integrated urban design, pedestrian pathways and vegetation play a large role in softening communal areas and minimizing the perceived extent of hard across the development.
While providing architectural continuity, the dwellings have been designed to allow a sense of variation and individuality between varying lots. All dwellings follow common materiality and architectural language, with the variation being introduced using five different building forms/types. This allows the internal streetscape of the development to offer diversity in its architectural arrangement and roof forms.
