Lidcombe Rise

CLIENT | Billbergia

TYPE | Architecture, Interior Design, Documentation

SECTOR | MIXED USE, REsidential, Retail, childcare

STATUS | Complete (2024)

LOCATION | Lidcombe, NSW

SCALE | GFA: 32,411 sqm, Site: 10,133 sqm, 376 apartments including 63 Social Housing Apartments

Building A
HEIGHT | 21.5 m, 6 Storeys
SCALE | 63 apartments

Building B
HEIGHT | 34.3 m, 10 Storeys
SCALE | 93 apartments

Building C
HEIGHT | 42.8 m, 13 Storeys
SCALE | 109 apartments

Building D
HEIGHT | 42.9 m, 13 Storeys
SCALE | 111 apartments

COST | $130 M

PHOTOGRAPHY | TOM ROE

AWARDS
2024 UDIA NSW Awards - Masterplanned Communities - Winner

2024 UDIA NSW Awards - Apartments (High Rise) - Finalist

2024 UDIA NSW Awards - Affordable Development - Finalist

2024 PowerHousing National Awards - Modernisation of Built Form Development - High Commendation

2024 INDE Awards - Multi-Residential Building - Shortlisted

2024 The Urban Developer Awards - Development of Year - Social Infrastructure - Finalist

2023 Boomtown! Project of the Year Awards - Outstanding Affordable Housing Project - Winner

2023 Urban Taskforce Development Excellence Awards - Affordable Residential Development - Winner

2023 Place Leaders Asia Pacific - Large Scale Project - Finalist

Community housing providers, Government and the private sector working together to tackle the current housing crisis.

Lidcombe Rise is a mixed-tenure development providing a mix of critically-needed social, affordable and market housing, alongside seamlessly integrated community amenities. Spearheaded by Billbergia, the project incorporates 63 Social housing apartments, 93 Affordable housing apartments and 220 market apartments delivered in partnership with Evolve Housing and Homes NSW.

Comprising four buildings housing not only the apartments but also a childcare centre and neighbourhood retail tenancies , Lidcombe Rise design lead, Amit Julka, explains that placemaking and community building were the underpinning principles of the project's sympathetic design. 

“The foundational design principle guiding the design and development teams for Lidcombe Rise has been the notion of ‘equity of amenity’ across the three residential typologies. From entrance lobbies through to finishes in the apartments, our aim has been to deliver designs that are indistinguishable in quality and amenity from one another.” Amit Julka, Director at Plus Architecture.

From the experience of the residents as they entered from the street into their lobbies and to their apartments, the quality of the ground floor amenity zones and the amenities offered by the apartments themselves, the overall offering was designed to be indistinguishable between the different types of tenure offered, realising the opportunity implicit within the provision of such developments – that the base nature and dignity of the occupant doesn’t change, regardless of circumstance.

“We are thrilled to deliver a socially and economically viable development that provides a critical boost to the supply of social, affordable and market housing in Sydney. Applying their unique design expertise,  Plus Architecture has ensured each building across the mixed-tenured development has been designed  and built to the same high standard.” Thomas Nader, Development Manager at Billbergia Group.

The development sits in close proximity to Lidcombe station, on a narrow east-west parcel of land adjacent to the train line.

Originally occupied by 10 detached dwellings, the finished development transitions down in scale from the Lidcombe Town Centre to the low rise residential context beyond, acting to reinforce the urban scale principles set out within the Town Centre development plan. The orientation of the built form on the site allows for equitable access to each building, and the street is enlivened by activated uses that comprise apartments, small format retail suitable for grocers or cafes and a childcare centre for 60 children.

The design is based around the use of colour (referencing different types of flora found within greater Sydney) to distinguish the buildings while a language of swooping precast forms contrasting against glazed elements and matt aluminium panelling provides an overall language that provides cohesion across the development. Principles of sustainability and solar amenity have been fundamental to the design of the facades – continuous bands of precast limit the extent of glazing and both horizontal and external fins/blades are used to provide a level of protection to the double-glazed windows.

While we are very proud of the eventual architectural outcome, this project, we feel represents something greater than just design, namely a positive and tangible response to the to the question of ‘viability’. While the notion of ‘equity of amenity’ is a noble one, can it stand the stresses of the construction and development costs, marketability of product and other, ‘non-architectural’ factors? We feel that Lidcombe Rise has, and in doing so successfully validated the vision that socially forward developments can be delivered successfully.