ARM and Launch partner on more social housing

Social and community housing take many forms. The Victorian Government’s recently announced Big Housing Build will boost them enormously.

We’re delighted to be working on two social projects with Launch Housing.

Launch is a Melbourne community organisation that delivers homelessness services and housing support to disadvantaged Victorians.

Builder Camillo has now been appointed to construct our Dandenong Family Supportive Housing project. This crucial building is for women and children escaping domestic violence—people who would otherwise become frequent clients of services for homelessness, health, mental health and justice.

Construction will begin onsite in early 2021.

Dandenong Family Supportive Housing

Our second project with Launch, also involving Banyule Council, is the Bellfield social housing development.

The Bellfield proposal is a four-storey building with up to 58 homes and a roof garden. It will provide housing, assurance and security for low to moderate income earners.

Bellfield social housing development

It is a very sustainable scheme. Its timber structure will minimise embodied energy, the high-performance façade and passive heating/cooling initiatives will reduce operational energy, and the solar panel array will generate energy. These things will deliver Launch and Banyule’s high NatHERS rating ambitions in a sustainable and enduring building.

“Better environmentally sustainable design features make a big difference to community housing providers and clients…it not only improves the built environment and makes life a lot more comfortable for people, less hot in summer, warmer in winter, but it also reduces utility costs and frees up funds for other uses.”

—Jack Panton, Launch Housing

Banyule and Launch will apply for a slice of the Big Housing Build to realise Bellfield.