Seventh Heaven

Converting under-utilised roof space on the 7th floor into post-graduate student accommodation was a fantastic opportunity to work with an iconic Romberg and Boyd building. Originally designed by Romberg, Boyd took over and added the distinctive ‘Akubra’ roof to the top! The unique space required a different approach to the standard student housing model, with student rooms maximising their small footprint through platforms to create zones and flexible built-in furniture.

Awards:

• Kevin Borland Award for Small Project Architecture at the AIA Victoria 2013 awards.
• Award for Small Project at the 2013 AIA National Awards.

Jury citation:

Nestled into the roof void of Frederick Romberg and Robin Boyd’s McCaughey Court student accommodation building at the University of Melbourne, 7th Heaven provides compact and economical housing for mature-aged students. Accommodation units are cleverly shoehorned into the steeply hipped “Akubra” roof form of the original building, creating dramatic double-storey accommodation units. They feel as unexpectedly generous in section as they do constrained in plan.

The plans are as small as twelve square metres. The architects designed specific built-in furniture to maximize liveability of the small spaces and use the unexpected generosity of the volume. The compact spaces are cleverly and tightly arranged, demonstrating that with care, specificity and tonnes of storage, very small spaces can make delightful homes. It is a telling departure from the notion of open planning and flexibility in institutional housing. To make such small spaces function, furniture must be fixed and specific to volume.