The University plans to create a benchmark residential development that is sustainable and will showcase best-practice planning principles at all levels.

The development will create single residential lots in addition to grouped housing sites, with a total of approximately 300 dwellings.

New and diverse housing opportunities

This will provide a unique opportunity for the wider community to source new housing opportunities of a smaller lot size in the Western Suburbs. 

The proposal represents a rare opportunity to achieve a diversity of housing types through a range of residential densities. This meets the objectives of the State Government Study of Land Use Patterns and Residential Densities in the Western Suburbs (July 2008) that states:

The City of Nedlands has the lowest density housing in the Western Suburbs. As a consequence, the range of housing choice available is also the lowest. Single dwellings on large lots are the overwhelming predominant housing form in the City.

Study of Land Use Patterns and Residential Densities in the Western Suburbs

Design principles

The design principles for the residential development include:

• Creating a vibrant and sustainable neighbourhood;
• Providing a diversity of dwelling typologies and tenures, supporting a range of demographic profiles;
• Providing urban structure that supports walking, cycling and public transport use;
• Creating a permeable and legible local street network that encourages use of the public domain;
• Developing a community that relates to and supports the network of conservation and open spaces both within the development area and the locality;
• Responding to and acknowledging the existing landform, capitalising on views and creating a sense of place and relationship to the surrounding context; and
• Integrating with the surrounding urban context, acknowledging the sites strategic location in relation to employment, public transport, infrastructure and services.