It means that the nun of St. Vincent de Paul, Sister Carole, has finally found her own room, with a bathroom, after 51 years serving the poor and living in any space available next to the crying babies and the women fleeing the violence.
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Looking at a rubber tree stand in the backyard of Marsfield’s house, Sister Carole’s roommate, Sister Therese, the second youngest in the order at 56, said the house provided ” many reminders of the beauties of God’s creation. “
Far from the dark and institutional spaces that characterized this type of housing in the past, both projects were driven by research on what their residents wanted.
Students wanted power points and USB ports, but the university also wanted to encourage students to socialize.
Full-body windows invited students to “get up and leave their rooms to interact with each other and with the world around them.”
Johnson said the abundance of natural sunlight that seeps through common areas, including kitchens and living spaces, “increased students’ mood and enhanced their school experiences.” legality and openness “.
These initiatives showed the “subtle ways as architects in which we can socially design people’s behavior and mood to make them happy to be there.”
Macquarie University property director Mark Broomfield with Luke Johnson of Architecus, whose design for new student accommodation is selected in the Multiple Residential Housing category of the NSW 2022 Architecture Awards. Credit: Janie Barrett
The location of the new accommodation on the central courtyard grounds had “restored the throbbing heart of the campus,” Johnson said.
“To get the right recipe for the venue, you have to have people here for over daylight hours, an 18-hour day,” he said. “You offer the comforts that people want to come here to socialize, to eat and drink. So students not only come to a class and leave, they live.”
Jury Chair Carolyn Mitchell said the two projects were “exemplary of an inclusive and respectful design, intelligently balancing residents’ demands through careful consideration of community, social and private spaces.”
Sister Teresa, of the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, in the garden of the nun’s new room, designed by Ha Architecture, who is a finalist in the category of multiple housing of the NSW Architecture Awards 2022. Credit : Janie Barrett
Well-designed spaces for communities, from “student days to retirement,” were critical, as the challenges of the climate crisis affected housing accessibility, the cost of living, and the quality of life, said Mitchell, leader of the Sydney studio of architects Bickerton Masters.
Macquarie’s new student dormitory also bears no resemblance to the dark rooms where Macquarie’s property manager Mark Bloomfield lived when he went to university in the United Kingdom.
When Bloomfield asked the students what they liked about the previous central plaza, there was silence. So he asked what they didn’t like. “They said, ‘It’s so gray, gray trees and gray buildings.’
They wanted “life” to return to the center of campus.
Macquarie student Elise Magnus said it was the “perfect place to go first place away from home.”
Elise Magnus in an exhibition dormitory in the new student accommodation at Luke Johnson’s Macquarie University in Architecus. Credit: Janie Barrett
Her family lives in Sweden, and she wanted the privacy of an apartment, the ability to cook and clean herself with areas where she could socialize and study with other students.
With his family so far away, he also wanted 24-hour security. “I don’t feel like I’ve been thrown to the bottom,” he said.
Sister Carole said the nuns told Harding how they wanted to live their last years. The architect listened, even turned the house so that its living spaces were in front of the trees. The house has generous rooms and Sister Carole’s is large enough for her crafts, and a spacious hallway, suitable for anyone in need of a walker.
It has a prayer room, a communal kitchen and a living room. “It simply came to our notice then. Looking at how we could age on the site, and I think this is the perfect building for that, ”Sister Carole said.
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