The $2.2 billion, 3,000-home Ivanhoe housing estate in Macquarie Park, north-west Sydney is taking shape, with a development application for the next stage of development on public exhibit.
Stage two of the massive development, masterplanned by Bates Smart and Hassell, involves three distinct lots, with buildings in each of them designed by different architects.
Designed by Cox Architecture with landscape by Hassell, Lot C4 will feature a 17-storey social housing tower with 216 social units, a 24-storey market tower with 268 units, and four market townhouses of three storeys each. Cox explains that the buildings play an important role in the transition from the urban character of the housing estate to the natural Shrimptons Creek nature corridor.
“The tower massing has been crafted to respond to two separate conditions, the north-western most tower responds to its more urban context and is more orthogonal in nature, while the south-eastern tower responds to Shrimptons Creek and is more organic in nature,” the firm says in planning documents.
Lot C3 comprises a 16-storey residential tower designed by Fox Johnston with McGregor Coxall. It sits closer to the centre of the masterplan, looking over the central village green. Fox Johnston describes how the tower is split into two distinct forms to break up the bulk and allow for the inclusion of communal landscaped spaces dubbed “forest rooms.”
The village green sits within Lot C2, along with a community centre with a “social enterprise cafe,” a pool and a gym. Chrofi and McGregor Coxall were recently announced as the winners of a design competition for this lot, which will sit at the heart of the estate. The various uses occupy a single-storey, linear built form that wraps around the central park and creates an active relationship with the village green.
The NSW Land and Housing Commission first submitted a development application for the overall project in 2018. It is being delivered by the Aspire Consortium with developers Frasers Property Australia and Citta Property Group, on behalf of the commission. The project has been criticized for its relative lack of social and affordable housing, and concerns have been raised over density.
Construction on stage one started in 2020.
Source: Architecture - architectureau
