One of our team, Alex was fortunate enough to partake in the Nightingale Night School Studio at Melbourne University in 2016. This was the first year it was run by Breathe Architecture.

Nightingale Night School aims to educate students in the Nightingale Housing model. As part of the studies students carry out feasibility studies and design a Nightingale project. A project which is realistic to the market, explores the idea of sharing resources and implements a Triple-Bottom-Line strategy involving community as the glue which holds this strategy together. More information and projects can be found on the Nightingale Night School website. More information about the Nightingale model can be found on the Nightingale Housing website.

Alex’s choice of project was to interrogate the costing model of the Nightingale Housing model. How dense do you need to go to mitigate the high land costs in popular parts of Melbourne? There was a lot of Excel work done in this studio and the tower which was designed was intended to be primarily made of CLT and had to reach 17 storeys to make costs work!

The block chosen was on the main street of Clifton Hill where there are already high density buildings proposed and being built. The concept is to ‘stack up’ medium density buildings until the feasibility study ‘stacks up’ itself, hence the name Nightingale Stacks Up.

Each medium density block is accessed by a central lift well and each medium density building has its own local lift. More information about Alex’s project can be found here.

Breathe Architecture’s philosophy of using raw and local materials flows through the aesthetic of their and other’s Nightingale projects. It is a responsible, quantifiable and practical method for buildings to reach a remarkable level of sustainability.

The exposure to quantifying as part of the architectural profession has contributed to reinforcing the ideas Alex was already looking into to be more responsible about the environment, time recording and business structures in his professional life. Quantifying helps you be a force for future good! Thanks Breathe!