Foreword

The Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge is part of Bee Breeders’ Affordable Housing competition series. Run in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS, this competition tasked participants with submitting innovative design proposals for mitigating Melbourne’s affordable housing crisis.

This design series poses that there is no one solution to making housing affordable. Today, a host of new ideas and platforms are enabling people to own or purchase homes. These creative methods include community co-living facilities, 3D-printed homes, stackable modular homes, new forms of transit-oriented development, and more.

There were no specific design or site requirements for this competition. Proposals were requested to be flexible, enabling accommodations for a variety of inhabitant types: single professionals, couples, families, or group living. The brief sought out designs for a pilot-phase concept for affordable housing, which could be carried out within Greater Melbourne to increase its housing stock.

The jury favoured designs that were minimal in their use of land and materials and those that challenged standard housing typologies, while at the same being able to offer real solutions to Melbourne’s affordable housing crisis. Experts anticipate that Melbourne will require 1.6 million new homes within the next 35 years to meet the demands of a population of eight million by 2050.

Bee Breeders collaborated with a world-class jury panel of international architects, as well as regional designers, educators, and journalists. The full panel included: Karen Alcock, principal and founder of MAArchitects and current member of the Victorian Design Review Panel of the Office of the Victorian Government Architect (OVGA); Ben van Berkel, founder and principal of UNStudio; Linda Cheng, editor of Melbourne-based ArchitectureAU.com; Winy Maas, co-founding partner and principal architect of MVRDV; Alan Pert, director of the Melbourne School of Design; and Tristan Wong, director at SJB Architecture – Melbourne.

Selected winning designs will be featured in the ARCHHIVE BOOKS’ next issue of its publication series What is Affordable Housing? Bee Breeders and its jury panel thank all individuals and teams that submitted proposals.

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge
Official partner
Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge
Enter the next competition edition
Under
Bridge

Turning unused bridge areas into lively homes

Affordable Housing Series 17th Edition ideas COMPETITION

1st Prize Winner +
ARCHHIVE BOOKS Student Award

Project name

Housing De-Railed

The development of real architectural projects comes with a myriad of restrictions. I choose to participate in architectural competitions as a means of eliminating some of these limitations and opening the door to new paradigms and possibilities within my designs. This allows me to push my interests far beyond their typical barriers and produce topical projects that can inspire real world works.

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2nd Prize Winner

Project name

Bleacher Housing

An architecture competition allows us to think outside of the box and test different solutions to respond to current challenges, such as fast-growing cities and increasing housing demands.

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Authors Sandra Maria Estrada Rosas, Maria Gabriela Vaca Sanchez
Country Netherlands

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

HIGHLINE TOPIA

My partner and I would like to be exposed to more designs and opportunities which we rarely encounter in our daily work. Our work is more about high-rise buildings, so thinking about a socially related project would exercise our way of thinking in more complex things. Also, acting as not just a designer in a team helped us develop a deeper understanding about the operation of a project. We recapped after we submitted the competition board and summarized which aspects we can improve in and how we will plan the next one.

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Authors Tingting Peng, Sijia Liu
Country United States

BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

Neighbourhood Characters

Architecture competitions are the right medium to challenge our preconceptions of what is around us and push us to imagine the future we want to live in. Competitions are a great way to develop our thinking and ideas, creating a starting point to make these visions become a reality.

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Country Australia

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Incremental Infill

Project name

SUPERBLOCK! A framework for future family fun

Company United Make
Authors Mond Qu, Sonny Do, Yeqian Shi
Country Australia
Project name

UP-Yard: Lifting communities towards sustainable living

Author Tarek Abou Dib
Country Australia
Project name

SynergyHome

Country Malaysia
Project name

THE STACK

Authors Yuxin Jiang, Yong Kiat Tan, Shengran Zheng
Country Australia
Project name

Homes amongst a gum tree

Company Ola Studio
Authors Manos Mavridis, Luc Harel, Phil Snowdon
Country Australia

Shortlisted projects

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Affordable Aggregation

Amirmohammad Adami dehkordi

Ali Shakibaei

Erfan Shakibaei

Sara Soltanzadeh

Italy

Housing in Suburban Shopping Centre

Enquan Tang

the University of Melbourne

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Australia

Retrofitting Melbourne's Car Parks: A New Multi-Density Housing Typology for the Greater Melbourne Area

Ieuan Hook

Paul Ventrice

Hook Consulting

Australia

Incremental Infill

Alex Stein

Australia

Piparoo Affordable Houses

Daniella Leal

Brazil

Homes amongst a gum tree

Manos Mavridis

Luc Harel

Phil Snowdon

Ola Studio

Australia

Cross-Stack Housing

David Leggett

LLDS

Australia

Long Perimeter

Kritanai Pisutigomol

Jingfei Huang

United States

RIVERSIDE

Xiao Ye

Australia

The Extension

Diandra Fairuza

Khairunnisya Nuralya

Muhammad Farhan

Indonesia

Nostalgia Blues

Yuhan Gu

Hefei university of technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
China

Phantom Spaces

Lazaro Ontiveros

The University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Melbourne Affordable Housing Challenge

James Apple

The University of Texas at Arlington

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

SUPERBLOCK! A framework for future family fun

Mond Qu

Sonny Do

Yeqian Shi

United Make

Australia

The Green Block Community

Dora Figueroa

The University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Melbourne's Missing Middle

Conner Payne

The University of Texas at Arlington School of Architecture

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Neighbourhood Characters

Matthieu
 Bégoghina

Australia

Infill in my Backyard

Audrey leonore Lopez

Elliot Dunton

Bob Mcdougall

Thom McLaughlin

Australia

Melbourne Corners

Jeffrey Silberstein

United States

(Single) Mingle

The mingle Cooperative

Australia

UP-Yard: Lifting communities towards sustainable living

Tarek Abou Dib

Australia

The Elevated Village

Virginia Benke

The University of Texas at Arlington

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

Staying Grounded

Gian franco Valverde espinoza

Bhuvnesh Mundhra

Australia

Don't Dream it's Over...

Toby Mcelwaine

Jarrod Malbon

Dominic Tanaka van de ven

Australia

THE STACK

Yuxin Jiang

Yong Kiat Tan

Shengran Zheng

Australia

The building for mental health

Frank Bonilla muhry

Universidad Nacional de Colombia

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Colombia

revita.

Alexander Rouditser

Luisa Calle

Tien chuan Tiu

Huei Loo

The Silver Arc

Australia

ENCOUNTER AT THE STATION

Yuxin Zhan

Shanghai Institute of Visual Arts

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
China

Carpark LIVING

Tony Duong

Daniel Zou

Jean-marc Tang

Australia

Bleacher Housing

Sandra Maria Estrada Rosas

Maria Gabriela Vaca Sanchez

Netherlands

HIGHLINE TOPIA

Tingting Peng

Sijia Liu

United States

On-Street Housing

Nathan Costall

Australia

The Trellis

Cheok chun (chuck) Chong

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
United States

SynergyHome

Lap Zhen Wong

Erik Ung Hieng Yek

Malaysia

Permeabilicity

Emilio Franco

Vincenzo Izzo

Italy

RENEWABLE FOOD - SOCIAL PROJECT

Marian Lee

Australia

Suburban Hybrid – A Community for All

Jianing Cui

Wanting Zhou

United States

Housing De-Railed

Evan Langendorfer

Australia

City Ark

Qian (jenny) Yang

Xinyu (maggie) Cheng

Mankit (michael) Tam

Canada

RE-HABITAT

Felice Chap

Yun chou Han

Singapore