Unison Social and Affordable Housing Development Wins Award for Excellence
We are thrilled to announce that our community housing redevelopment project in Fairfield, Vic – the Marjorie Oke Apartments – has received this year’s UDIA Victoria Award for Excellence – Affordable Development.
The UDIA Victoria Awards for Excellence Program celebrates and acknowledges the best in quality and innovation in urban development. It’s the second year running that that our work is recognised by the peak body.
“Winning for two years demonstrates that we are a leader in this space,” Unison CEO James King said. “It’s a clear sign that Unison continues to raise the bar in developing social and affordable housing.”
“We are tackling the housing affordability crisis by increasing the supply of good quality affordable housing in Victoria,” King said.
Unison completed this major redevelopment in 2021. It included the refurbishment of a double-storey Victorian heritage building in and a new four-storey apartment building to replace the former 22-bedroom rooming house with 38 self-contained apartments.
Residents’ wellbeing and quality of life has been the driving design and development principal. Today, the Marjorie Oke apartments provide safe and secure homes to women experiencing or at risk of homelessness in Melbourne’s inner north.
“With this project, we have achieved our goal to build a place where residents can be comfortable, live with dignity, make memories and connect with the community,” King added.
Unison would like to acknowledge our partners in this project:
- The Victorian Government for in part funding this project on the approval of the Director of Housing;
- The National Housing Finance and Investment Corporation (NHFIC) for their financing assistance;
- The Darebin City Council and Mayor Messina for their enthusiastic support of this project;
- The project teams from Manresa Constructions, Reshape Development and FMSA Architecture for delivering such an outstanding build; and
- The Unison team for going above and beyond to deliver the best for our community
The $11.5m project was in part funded by the Victorian Government and the balance of the project’s costs was funded by Unison.
This property also won the 2021 Planning Institute of Australia, VIC Award for Planning Excellence for Great Place.
Find out more about this project: https://unison.org.au/about-us/our-properties/station-st-fairfield
More info about Unison’s developments: https://unison.org.au/about-us/development
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