Seven-block apartment “village” to be light on carspaces, heavy on bike racks

LIMITED carspaces and shared laundries — that’s wash up in a village of seven “green” apartment blocks, sharing just one basement carpark, planned for Brunswick.

An artist’s impression of one of the planned buildings.

LIMITED carparks and shared laundries — that’s the wash up in a village of seven “green” apartment blocks, sharing just one basement carpark, planned for Brunswick.

Named Nightingale Village, the seven buildings will be built in and around Duckett St and have 210 dwellings.

But there will be just one basement car park to service the entire seven buildings.

But the plan has been met with mixed reaction.

The buildings will follow the model of nearby Florence St’s Nightingale 1, which features a shared laundry and communal “beehive” with bike racks in place of onsite carparks.

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RMIT university urban research fellow Dr Elizabeth Taylor said the current standard of minimum car parks — one per every one or two-bedroom dwelling in Moreland — was “based on assumptions from America in the 1950s and should be discredited”.

Dr Taylor said Moreland could soon follow Melbourne Council in removing minimum park regulations given the interest from buyers.

“A lot of people want a better quality apartment rather than a parking space,” she said.

“We need better ways to make use of the amount of parking that is provided that is flexible and adaptable.”

Developers lodged the first permit application for Nightingale Village with Moreland Council on May 9.

Breathe Architecture designed the Florence St buildings and will be involved in the new village.

An artist’s impression of Nightingale Aoshima on Duckett St.

Design director Jeremy McLeod said the plans would also incorporate improvements to the neighbouring public Upfield bike path.

“Nightingale Village has a precinct-wide landscape plan which included giving land back to the broader community to help widen the Upfield bike path, which can become incredibly congested and dangerous at peak times,” Mr McLeod said.

But the lack of parking could result in squeezing the already packed streets just off Sydney Rd, according to Sydney Road Brunswick Association manager Claire Perry.

“It is a concern that the buildings already in place are choking up the residential streets around Brunswick ... you can’t guarantee there won’t be any cars,” she said.

The village will include eight commercial tenancies to be built on edge of the Upfield train line, just south of Anstey station.

The project aims to be completed by 2021, with the council yet to made the permit public.