AHMM was named the runners-up for Illumanate Living Building Challenge (LBC) Design Competition run by the Living Future Institute of Australia (LFIA) in partnership with Development Victoria.

This ideas competition asked designers to imagine what socially just, culturally rich, and ecologically restorative adaptive reuse looks like within the new mixed-use community known as LUMA.

Set within the suburb of Sunshine North, Victoria, the former City West Water administrative block is a heritage building in need of a new life. The building and its immediate surroundings are historically significant as the former MMBW Western Regional Complex during an important phase of growth of the Melbourne & Metropolitan Board of Works in the 1970s and 1980s. It is also architecturally significant as an example of the work of architectural firm A.K. Lines, MacFarlane and Marshall with brutalist influences.

We developed a set of clear strategies to achieve each of the performance categories; Place, Water, Health + Happiness, Materials, Equity and Beauty. At the heart of our thinking has been consideration for how investment in the building now can enable future uses beyond those envisaged in the competition to allow the buildings to be transformed into a mixed-use development that complements the neighbouring residential and retail uses and serves the changing needs of the community long into the future.

Aligned to the brief we carefully selected the mix of activities in the building to promote community engagement, gatherings, connections, and exchange. Gardens, cooking, crafts and artistic making and exhibitions, as well as childcare, health centre, gym and co-working space, will be open and offered to the wider community.

Location
Victoria, Australia
Client
Living Future Institute of Australia in partnership with Development Victoria