Built on the land of the Whadjuk people of the Noongar nation
The experimental housing development WGV has been unfolding for six years in the Perth suburb of White Gum Valley. Behind the coastal limestone cliffs of Fremantle and beside a golf course lined with tuart trees sits a series of fascinating experiments with water, energy, landscape and architecture.
A space for housing experimentation and demonstration is of great importance in Australia. In contexts dictated by quantity – where housing factors as a commodity before it factors as a place to live – quality can be scarce. Medium-density demonstrations offer chances to prove and experience the gains in sharing and sustainability that can come from living closer together, as well as giving designers, communities and governments a space to lead the marketplace, setting higher expectations for quality.
In Perth, such a space was created in 2013 by the state’s development agency Landcorp, now Development WA. The liberating ambition was for “innovation through demonstration”: 80 homes and 180 residents across a diversity of housing types on the 2.2-hectare site of a former school.
The WGV experiments set out to recalibrate
