Nightingale Founder’s Bid for Affordable Architectural Kit Homes

Australia faces a triple crisis of housing affordability, climate change and social isolation. It’s fair to say Breathe Architecture and Nightingale founder Jeremy McLeod is troubled by the sector’s response to these overlapping crises. “We build the largest housing in the world,” McLeod tells The Urban Developer . “We have the highest carbon in the world outside of the oil producing, Middle Eastern nations, and we have some of the lowest occupancy in that housing in the world. “That’s how we’re responding to it. So, it doesn’t help with loneliness, doesn’t help with connection, doesn’t help with carbon or climate change, and it doesn’t help with affordability.” The Featherweight Homes concept, co-founded by Jeremy McLeod and Steve Hooker, aims to flip this counterproductive approach on its head by channelling the spirit of Australian architectural legends Robin Boyd and Merchant Builders. In the 1950s the average house size was 100 square metres. By 2010, it had grown to 240 square metres. McLeod says modern Australian housing is too large, energy-inefficient, and not conducive to community building, especially when compared to historical terrace houses. “The irony is that we used to build houses around 90sq m ... right through Fitzroy, Collingwood, Carlton, East Melbourne ... all these terrace houses historically built for workers that have gone on to be some of the most expensive housing per square metre in the city,” McLeod says. The Small Homes Service and Merchant Builders were all about good design, affordability and allowing access to that good design for all. “The other 95 per cent, not just the incredibly wealthy,” McLeod says. ▲ The 90sq m terrace houses have gone on to be some of the most expensive housing per square metre in the city, McLeod says. Reviving the Starter Home Featherweight Homes aims to be the “Starter Home for the modern era”, offering a scalable housing solution using modern methods of construction that can fit eight single-bedroom apartments on a standard 15m-wide lot. The project draws inspiration from Boyd’s Small Homes Service launched in 1947 as a collaborative endeavour between The Age newspaper and the Royal Victorian Institute of Architects to make well-designed modern homes accessible during post-war housing shortages. This tradition continued when David Yencken and John Ridge founded Merchant Builders in 1965, along with consultant architect Graeme Gunn and landscape architect Ellis Stones. For 26 years, Merchant Builders set benchmarks for residential architecture in Australia, pioneering architect-designed project homes for the mass market. The Featherweight design takes advantage of recent Victorian planning reforms that have unlocked opportunities for medium-density housing that were nearly impossible to approve under previous planning codes. The homes would be 100 per cent electric and powered by renewable energy, boasting north-facing living spaces to ensure winter sun penetrates deep into the plan while providing summer shade—a principle also valued by Merchant Builders, which preserved indigenous trees and plants. Robin Boyd Foundation chair and former managing director of Kane Construction Tony Isaacson loves the idea but wants to see it move from concept to construction. “If there’s nothing built, we haven’t achieved anything. So far, it’s just drawings. I’d just like to see a much greater commitment to building,” Isaacson tells The Urban Developer . ▲ Merchant Builders' Winter Park is “an outstanding example of careful design extended into a consideration of the importance of landscape and open space”. He sees prototyping as essential for housing models like Featherweight Homes. “You’re going to eat it on the first one, but by the second or third, you’ll be fine,” Isaacson says. “And if it doesn’t work, give up on it. But the only way that the first one can be built is with commitment to a prototyping process and not just talking about it. “And maybe that’s with government support or private philanthropy. It should be easy. Go get a block of land, get half a million bucks and build it. “I don’t think it needs to be overthought. If it’s a good idea, we should try it. You shouldn’t have to spend two years discussing that.” Isaacson says government must step up and support innovation. “If modern methods of construction and prefabrication represent innovation in housing, then government has a responsibility to support that,” he says. “They used to do it, but they don’t anymore.” The project’s most radical departure from conventional development is its reduction in private car parking. Featherweight Homes prioritises pedestrians and connection by pushing vehicles to the perimeter, preserving community spaces for greenery and tree canopy. “In the most sought-after housing in places like Fitzroy, Collingwood and Clifton Hill, you park your car in the street and then you walk past your neighbours, you get to know them. That’s how community is built,” McLeod says. “It’s a great piece of simple urban infrastructure to help people connect.” ▲ Robin Boyd Foundation chair Tony Isaacson at Boyd’s Walsh Street home. Music to developers’ ears McLeod says this approach also increases density, efficiency and improves liveability—music to many a developer’s ears. “Under one conventional model, the road area is 39 per cent of the site. Our model is 12 per cent. Green space under the conventional model has a central park, but the rest is asphalt. Our model is 38 per cent of the site.” As a result, the Featherweight model achieves 41 homes per hectare compared to 31 in conventional developments—a 30 per cent improvement in efficiency. To accelerate adoption, McLeod has proposed a pre-approved pattern book concept to the Department of Transport and Planning. “The idea with pattern books is that the designs are ‘shovel-ready’—they’ve been worked so hard that all the planning and compliance requirements are already met in that set of documents,” Isaacson says. “It’s happening in Canada and it’s becoming a worldwide trend.” McLeod says this would allow developers to secure approvals once, then replicate the design across multiple sites. “Under the traditional planning model, it takes about five years from design to completion,” McLeod says. “With a pre-approved model, it might take two years to get the original approval, but once approved, it would take one year from site acquisition to completion.” McLeod estimates the approach would save about 18 per cent in construction costs, plus savings from reduced planning risk and holding costs. ▲ Every home at Breathe’s The Village Daylesford faces north as part of its design to engender passive heating and cooling. His analysis of conventional builds versus the Featherweight option shows dramatic differences: a 56sq m apartment in an activity centre might cost $502,000 to deliver (land and construction), while a 130sq m townhouse in an outer suburb costs approximately $493,000. By contrast, the Featherweight model, delivering 56sq m units, comes in at just $283,000—a $200,000 saving. Isaacson acknowledges that Breathe faces more challenges balancing modern building requirements with the simplicity and affordability that defined Boyd’s approach. “To rebuild Boyd’s designs today, things would have to be stronger, safer, more insulated, and more compliant with town planning. All those things add cost,” Isaacson says. Like the Small Homes Service, which built approximately 5000 homes (around 15 per cent of homes in Victoria at the time), the Featherweight concept aims for scale and repeatability with eight standardised terrace house types that residents can choose but not customise. Delete Advancing the concept Turning the Shepherd Street project into a reality is key to advancing the Featherweight concept, despite the likelihood of higher initial costs. McLeod is working to make industrialised construction financially viable, looking to federal authorities to “ideally” bridge the cost gap between traditional and innovative methods while building partnerships with forward-thinking builders such as Modscape and Drouin West Timber and Truss. He draws inspiration from New Zealand’s Simplicity Living model, which secured backing from the KiwiSaver superannuation company and achieved 30 per cent savings by its third building. Victoria’s march to a population of 10.2 million people by 2051 makes the Featherweight model not only innovative and timely, but also imperative. “All the contingent parts are there,” McLeod says. “We’ve just got to bring it all together.”

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