Whau Crescent, Avondale
Housing Foundation developed 21 new houses comprising 8 houses for (then) Housing New Zealand and 13 houses for Housing Foundation’s affordable home ownership programme. The 21 new houses were delivered on 8 HNZC sections.
This programme was part of Housing New Zealand’s Auckland redevelopment programme, with the requirement to deliver 73 new houses across 4 sites by demolishing 16 existing houses and sub-dividing the sites to produce 73 new houses.
Housing Foundation achieved on all four development sites the maximum density permitted under the then operative District Plan for Auckland.
Whau Crescent development was particularly challenging as it was surrounded by existing residents, a large reserve to its rear and with some high-profile personalities who were not in favour of social housing (“diluting”) in their neighbourhood. This required the removal of existing HNZC houses by Housing Foundation to be completed in a very sensitive manner.
Due to the shape of the Whau Crescent land the layout and design of the houses was challenging however we developed a standardised 3 and 4-bedroom house design that, by simple internal amendments, could be allocated to any section in the development and still be able to maximise solar gain, face the road encouraging overlooking and remain open to encourage community interaction.
Whau Crescent is another excellent example of how it is possible to deliver truly integrated tenure including social rental, affordable rental, Rent to Own (HomeSaver) and Shared Ownership within a relatively tight footprint.