St Bart's Lime Street Accommodation
Description:
Facility for the homeless combining crisis care, transitional care, long term accommodation, aged care (dementia specific)and offices for mental health service providers etc. Construction currently on budget and ahead of schedule.
Location:
East Perth, WA
Client:
Department of Housing, Department of Health & Ageing, St Bartholomew's House
Key Stakeholders:
EPRA, City of Perth, Dept. of Housing, Dept. of Health and Ageing (Federal)
Services:
Full architectural services from feasibility to contract administration
Client Feedback
"Kelly’s vision was 'a place in the sun' for residents, and she has spent many hours talking with individual residents about their ideas for crisis and transitional accommodation, then worked to incorporate these views into her design.
A building of Lime Street’s proportions and complexities has posed a quantum of design issues. Overcoming many hurdles Kelly adapted to the challenges experienced during the ever changing face of the required design, demonstrating strength, flexibility and understanding, while working with other interested parties to achieve the end result.
Throughout the entire design process and many project phases Kelly sought to include creative and innovative ideas together with functional concepts to aid sustainability and reduce ongoing operating costs.
Kelly’s overall vision, personal touch and dedication to St. Bartholomew’s has continued; the end result will be the long awaited new hub and centre of operations for the organisation. St.Bartholomew’s House believes that the Lime Street building will be seen as iconic in the future."
Lynne Evans
CEO, St Bartholomew's House
Problem:
Charitable organisation St. Bartholomew’s House had identified a flaw in current social housing strategies – as homeless clients graduated from crisis care, to transitional care, to long term accommodation, they were forced to move into different facilities, making it difficult to provide continuity of care and develop an ongoing sense of community.
Thinking:
Would it be possible to combine crisis care, transitional care, long term accommodation and dementia-specific aged care, along with mental health service providers, in the same facility? And in such a way that clients and carers could build an ongoing community? The building would be unprecedented in Australia, and its design would raise numerous challenges: How do you combine so many different usages on the same site? How do you recreate St. Bartholomew’s “family atmosphere” in such a large facility? How do you win over government authorities to such an innovative approach?
Solution:
Formworks worked closely with St. Bartholomew's, from Board to operational levels, to understand the client's culture and needs. We also travelled extensively, to visit single-usage social housing projects around Australia,and combine their best features in the Lime Street design. The outcome is an innovative $30m building that uses sunlight, a complex mixture of private and shared spaces, and a rich and unifi ed design theme to allow residents and staff to create a new community, along with safer connections to the outside world.
Construction is underway and currently 10 weeks ahead of schedule.
