East Kimberley Community Housing

iredale pedersen hook were commissioned by the West Australian Department of Housing (DOH)  to design and deliver 111 houses on group dwelling sites in Kununurra and Wyndham over 3 stages.. The project was funded under the Federal Government’s Stimulus Package and seen as a high priority to demonstrate durable, environmentally efficient housing in remote regions within standard DOH brief, funding and within compressed timeframes.

The designs seek to create a series of new housing typologies by exploring the opportunities in the standard DOH housing brief. The dwellings explore the concept of living “around the house” creating a series of quality covered outdoor areas where occupants can dwell and always have a comfortable space to retreat to, regardless of high temperatures or rainy tropical conditions.

Stage 3 included transitional housing as part of a national pilot project to help transition Indigenous families into home ownership. This stage built upon the knowledge of the previous two stages, we were able to develop and refine previous ideas while introducing new designs based on our research. The designs benefitted from interviews with occupants from stages 1 & 2 with post occupancy evaluations revealing a desire to inhabit outdoor spaces with flexibility for privacy and acoustic separation.  Each house design includes multiple outdoor spaces allowing occupants to engage with the street and community, or retreat to private courtyards.  Oversized carports are designed with outdoor fans and power, acting as flexible spaces capable of accommodating multiple uses. This flexibility attempts to facilitate the occupant’s desires to personalise their home and to encourage a sense of dignity, pride and ownership of state housing.

Recent visits revealed a rich variety of spatial interpretation ranging from minimal signs of occupancy to intense personalisation and dense layering of personal items.

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