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Brief
The Henry spans 4 hectares, with buildings nestled within its broader landscape. The site includes multiple gardens and green spaces and is integrated with the local shopping village, an early childhood centre sits adjacent to the Higgins neighbourhood oval. The clubhouse includes amenities such as a café, gym, a small cinema, lecture hall, library, a pool table and treatment rooms for allied health services such as podiatry, physiotherapy and massage. The Henry accommodates independent living townhouses and apartments. The final phase (Stage 3) of the masterplan integrates units and amenities to provide residential care accommodation, framed around communal landscapes at the heart of the village, with recreation lawns, seniors exercise hub, children’s play area and community garden.
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Design
The final master plan consists of a careful massaging of the buildings’ massing so that heights don’t shade the surrounding buildings, including the neighbouring childhood centre. The buildings gradually step down from the northern tree line buffering Higgins Oval, towards the townhouses and childcare, seamlessly blending typologies and scales.
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The strategic placement of the new buildings opens up a new green space, named The Hub, that acts as a village square. It increases access to the existing clubhouse and serves as a gathering place for organised and impromptu events, for lawn bowls, croquet, and coffee catch ups and creates a vibrant village for families to visit. The placement also increases opportunities for deep root planting, which will provide shade and amplify the feeling of The Henry being a village tucked away amongst the trees. A community garden and children’s play area encourages the interaction of The Henry residents and the childcare centre, increasing opportunities for interaction between age groups beyond existing programs.
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Impact
Delivering all phases of The Henry master plan allowed us to apply whole-site and whole-neighbourhood thinking. This final stage of the development is respectful of the surrounding residential community with a bulk and scale which sits comfortably in the landscape. The plan allows residents to move through stages of their life without having to relocate from their community and surrounds; receiving more support and services when they need them. We believe that this final stage of the master plan will create more and many opportunities for both casual and organised social connections between residents, and their families, the community and the childcare centre.