Weddell Tropical Housing Design Competition and Weddell New-Town Urban Design Competition – Designs on Public Exhibition at the Art Gallery in the CDU Chancellery Building, each day 10am-3pm, 29 November-16 December, 2011 (The Chancellery is a new building off the lower road following the canal on the CDU campus).
On 28 November, 2011 the winners of these two NT design competitions were announced. The new city of Weddell, south of Darwin is intended to accommodate 50.000 people, in response to the NT Governments projected growth figures for the next ten years. Chief Minister Paul Henderson in July 2010 said, “We want Weddell to be tropical, sustainable and liveable …,”
The Weddell New-Town Urban Design Competition asked contestants to: “Develop a design concept for a new town, based on sustainability principles, around five walkable neighbourhoods (all around or adjoining Bennetts Creek to accommodate about 6000 people), incorporating a range of housing types including affordable housing with transport links, parklands and a central activity district or community centre.”
On 28 November, 2011, Planning Minister Gerry McCarthy announced the winner of the Weddell New-Town Urban Design Competition. It is Troppo Architects Pty Ltd with a $50,000 prize. The judges saw the entry as a ‘stand out’.
In the second competition- the Weddell Tropical Housing Design Competition: Entrants were asked to develop a series of housing design options with energy and water efficiency, and appropriate and affordable housing styles. Options included “single and two storey 3 bedroom houses, a two storey terrace house in a block of 10 – 15, a three storey townhouse in a block of 3 – 4, and an open criteria to be nominated by the competition entrant”. The joint winners here were Build Up Design and Troppo Architects Pty Ltd are joint winners.
From these competitions, we can now get away from suburbs built with masses of enclosed southern blockhouses, have both effective tropical greenhouse designs, choices in an affordable housing range, and walkable precincts which are socially, culturally, environmentally and economically sustainable.
We have a treasury of ideas for both individual homes and planned suburban layouts. We need a stern government commitment that these will be used in the actual development of Weddell.
MAC
Congratulations to the contestants, judges and organisers for achieving this breakthrough.