Nightingale Ballarat

It’s 1854, the city of Ballarat is alive with activity. People live upstairs in the centre of town while making a living below. The tram rattles up and down Sturt Street to meet the growing city's transport needs. Fast forward 165 years, post-motor vehicle ownership, through planning and zoning changes. Residents have fled to the city’s edges, to single houses following the great Australian Dream. After dark, Ballarat is now eerily quiet, a beautiful but dormant city. Continued urban sprawl, climate change, and an ageing population have become of great concern for the city.

Nightingale Ballarat is the granular delivery of The City of Ballarat’s strategic plan to bring residents back to the city. A prototype for the city and it’s people to see if this bold plan could possibly work in a regional context, a test case for the viability of medium density in Ballarat’s future. Nightingale Ballarat includes one, two, and three-bedroom apartments, rooftop garden, community room, cafe and office at ground floor, all 100% sold prior to completion. Its form is an elegant response to Ballarat’s 1800’s boom-era architecture designed with an overarching priority towards social, economic and environmental sustainability.

Nightingale Ballarat has been of critical importance to the city. It’s medium density done well. 100% fossil fuel free, each home achieves 8+ star NAtHERS keeping cost of living low and residents comfortable all year round. Community is fostered in the design with communal spaces throughout. Generous gestures have been made for the broader community including taking the powerlines underground, deep root planting for street shade, and a semi public courtyard. Importantly, 20% of the project is allocated to Housing Choices Australia on a mission to provide safe, secure housing to those most in need.

Nightingale Ballarat is exceptional in its sustainability outcomes. No gas and 100% electric, the building is connected under an embedded network that is 100% fossil fuel-free bulk buying of 100% GreenPower allowing sharing of wholesale electricity savings with the residents to reduce their ongoing cost of living. Nightingale Ballarat includes: Highly efficient building envelope Building exceeding 8 star NAtHERS High-efficiency CO2 heat pumps power shared hydronic heating / hot water systems. Parking for 50 bicycles Car Share Shared rooftop laundry, gardens Natural light and cross ventilation to each home 27.65kW PV array Induction cooktops Re-use of rainwater for irrigation and shared amenities Recycled materials used wherever possible including timber floors and red brick facade Courtyard paved in brick offcuts diverted from landfill Vegetation throughout inc deep root planting Open air walkways Double glazed, thermally broken windows Downstairs cafe fit out with left over construction materials, run by resident above Nightingale Ballarat excludes: Air-conditioning Second bathrooms Individual laundries Plasterboard ceilings Chrome Toxic finishes