Fitzroy Gasworks is currently one of the inner north’s most significant renewal sites, a former industrial precinct closed for more than a century. Development Victoria brought it to market in four parcels and delivered the first stage – a secondary school and sports centre. At the bid stage for Parcel’s B and C, we joined the Inner North Collective and were appointed lead master planning architect for both residential parcels. Through the master planning phase, we worked alongside Urban Designer Andy Fergus and collaborated with Studio Bright.
Rather than treat the site as an independent object, we planned it as a porous piece of the city. Twelve buildings sit across the two parcels. We resisted a single planning template, the critical consideration being how all the buildings sit together on the site, how they appear from the public realm, and how the precinct can read as a neighbourhood that arrived over time rather than all at once. Borat Street divides the two parcels, with heights stepping between eight and fourteen levels across the twelve buildings.
The masterplan is the result of iterative refinement. Assessing view lines, building separation, views to the sky, overshadowing and daylight, massing and bulk to each form, the master plan’s key consideration is the balance between public and private realm, and reduction in podium/tower building typology. This approach allowed the public realm to increase in size and receive more sunlight hours than the planning benchmark required.
Parcel B has a total of circa 510 apartments, providing build-to-rent homes, as well as social and affordable housing, anchored by a retail and hospitality precinct including a supermarket, medical facilities, post office and general amenity.
Parcel C has a total of circa 560 apartments, providing predominantly build-to-sell homes, with a small number of affordable and specialist disability homes. It has a mix of ground-level apartments, alongside specialist hospitality and will feature buildings designed by Freadman White, Studio Bright, Kennedy Nolan, Woods Bagot, Breathe and Fieldwork.
The outcome is a new neighbourhood, with more than a thousand homes across the two parcels, including an activated public realm that delivers over and above what its planning parameters asked for.
Fitzroy Gasworks Masterplanning
Lead master planning architect for two parcels of the Fitzroy Gasworks precinct, as part of the Inner North Collective – a joint venture between Assemble, Milieu and Hickory.
