The Western Residences – Western Sydney University

Submission Extract: The Western Residences on 2-3 Wilga close, Casula is a four-storey affordable housing project offering single bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom dwellings. The vision behind the proposed development is a novel approach of building using ‘kit of parts’ which ensures faster, safer, more sustainable construction while retaining creative freedom. The ‘kit of parts’ approach has enabled the designers to identify manufacturers within a radius of 50 kilometres that would potentially supply the repeatable components of the building integrating the entire construction value chain and ensuring design for manufacturing and assembly. The designers deconstructed ‘Net Zero’ for the proposed development in terms of weather and site context, geometry, fabric, services, renewables and an effective thermal bridging strategy. The proposed development has been designed keeping in mind a commonality strategy which can be replicated across more developments of similar kind. The ‘kit of parts’ approach has enormous potential in the affordable housing market and is yet to be tried and tested in Australia. The designers of the Western Residences have taken up the challenge and utilised a combination of typical BIM software to produce a prototype that can be replicated by the industry and in transforming ‘bill of quantities’ to ‘kit of parts’.