38 Albermarle Street

With enhanced apartment living, sustainability, and resident experience front of mind, Assemble and architects Fieldwork engaged in design works from 2018 to bring the project to fruition. Together they led early consultation with the established resident cohort on the design of their homes. Early feedback sessions with the residents fed into the designs of the building to better facilitate the spaces and services they needed.

A newly designated mixed-used precinct, various site constraints – including flood levels and site-specific heritage overlays – were strategically addressed from the beginning and throughout the project’s design journey. For example, height restraints at time (DDO63) meant communal spaces were integrated across the building instead of on a desired rooftop. Additionally, a metric height restraint within DDO63 meant homes nested behind the heritage façade required step transitions onto balconies and ultimately compromised the internal amenity of the first two floors. When DDO63 was updated via Amendment C345 in November 2018, Assemble proactively worked on a redesign to ensure the best liveability for residents, greater amenity and accessibility of the ground floor, and an improved heritage response. Finished to a high quality and as envisioned by the team, 73 households with over 50 pets happily moved in in July 2022.

From industry recognition to resident experience, 38 Albermarle Street has exceeded expectations. The project has been recognised with various architectural and development accolades – including the 2023 Victorian Architecture Awards, Award for Residential Housing, and National UDIA Award for Excellence 2024 in Affordable Housing. Importantly, in a survey conducted in 2022, residents cited several key aspects that contributed to high satisfaction levels, including the quality of design and build, the sense of community, and the services led by Assemble’s Neighbourhood Team. Notably, 83% of residents said they would purchase their apartments by the end of the five-year period.

38 Albermarle Street brings together high-quality, sustainable homes alongside communal spaces which support community connection and resilience. Thanks to the investment in strategic and creative design thinking, this project stands as a better, healthier way forward for inner-city apartment living.

The project integrates the site’s heritage façade designed by architect Harry A. Norris. The apartment setbacks of fluted, precast concrete recede against the red-bricked structure to commemorate Kensington’s industrial history and textures. The project’s open-aired breezeway significantly improves the environmental performance of the building, provides more light and airflow to all apartments, and acts as a modern-day verandah to connect neighbours.

38 Albermarle Street was designed for a diverse resident cohort and with significant community infrastructure to live beyond their apartments and connect with one another. The project’s shared spaces include a bookable multi-purpose room on the top floor; communal workshop and laundry; a shared herb garden and dog washing bays; a parcel room for secure deliveries; a lending library to borrow useful but rarely used items; 140 bike parking spaces; and various kid’s play areas. Car parks in a stacker system are communally owned and rented as needed, offering an attractive space to retrofit should car ownership reduce in the future.

38 Albermarle Street is universally accessible with weatherproofed walkways and features high-contrasted wayfinding colourways to support the visually impaired. The entryways amplify DDA ramping requirements and are rubber rendered for safe play for younger residents. Shared spaces are glazed with windows to heighten passive surveillance and encourage social connection.

38 Albermarle Street highlights the immediate impact that investment in professional design can have on people’s lives and how it can redefine future expectations of apartment living. Modelled off the success of this project, investment has been made into five more projects representing 1,500 homes across inner Melbourne.

38 Albermarle Street was designed to support residents in their journey to one day own well-designed, energy-efficient homes where a resilient community can prosper. Without this strategic thinking and design embedded within this project, Assemble’s purchase pathway would not be as impactful in creating home ownership opportunities for locked out Australians.

The project promotes a healthier, more connected example of inner-city apartment living. Passive design elements and rooftop solar powering the building’s operations help reduce household utilities costs and ease residents’ cost of living. Reinventing the 1980’s walk-up apartment typology, the open-aired breezeway increases natural light and crossflow ventilation to all homes. This design feature not only improves the building’s environmental performance, but also offers opportunities for neighbourly connections and urban landscaping.

All homes are gas-free, use induction cooktops, and are powered via AssembleConnect; Assemble’s opt-in energy service that connects 100% accredited GreenPower® to homes at competitive prices. A 2022 internal survey showed that 81% of residents believed their energy bills were either cheaper or the same price as before, reflecting the tangible benefit of AssembleConnect which bulk-buys 100% accredited GreenPower® at pricing less than the Victorian Default Offer pricing for brown energy.

Various shared spaces across the project provides greater amenity beyond typical apartment living and provides a more connected and responsive resident experience. Resident hobbyist groups have been established using the building’s shared spaces whilst the multi-purpose room was booked over 400 times in the first year.

Downstairs at Cassette, Assemble’s hybrid café and resident services hub, has become a welcome addition to the local scene for the community to meet and as an extension of resident’s homes. For all living enquiries, residents can access the Assemble Residents App or head downstairs to meet the onsite Neighbourhood Team who operate out of Cassette.

In prioritising operational efficiency, 38 Albermarle Street has implemented several key initiatives to enhance building quality, affordability, and environmental resilience for residents.

For construction of the project, building materials and fixtures that would meet their criteria of longevity and environment quality. Excessive material consumption was avoided where possible and more robust materials and quality fittings were chosen to reduce replacement and repair over the building’s maintenance cycle to bring long-term cost-efficiency to residents.

All homes are equipped with induction cooktops, offering residents a gas-free cooking solution. The homes are powered by competitively priced renewable energy provided through AssembleConnect, an opt-in embedded energy network. With all residents signed up, Assemble Connect provides residents with 100% accredited GreenPower® provided by Hepburn Energy. This ensures that homes are powered by clean and sustainable energy sources, offering cost-effective, energy-efficient solutions for daily living.

Energy efficiency at 38 Albermarle Street, is streamlined due to the efficiency of the passive design. The annual average electricity consumption for electricity at the project is 2399 kWh. By comparison, a Frontier Economics Consumption Report on ‘Residential energy consumption benchmarks’ issued in December 2020 (Climate zone 6, p.39), places the average two-person dwelling in Metropolitan Melbourne as using 4,840 kWh of electricity.

Residents have enthusiastically embraced Assemble’s many sustainability services and initiatives, further supporting the development’s overall operational efficiency. For example, the amount of compost by-product that the development’s bio-composter has produced is equal to four completely full 660-litre ‘storage bins’, since July 2022.

The success of 38 Albermarle Street underscores Victoria as a leader in Australian housing design and innovation. The project demonstrates that new ideas can provide scalable solutions to our country’s housing crisis – Assemble has leveraged this pilot project to onboard institutional investors into alternative housing models, with over 3,000 inner-Melbourne homes under construction or in planning.