A R b o r

Location: Footscray, Melbourne

A Mixed Use Residential Tower for the Sharing Economy

X Rachael Hirth

Welcome to Arbor, the future of living and architecture adapting to the sharing economy. Arbor is a commune which caters for both permanent and transient lifestyles, providing both the comfort of home and the leisure of a hotel. For the young and the old, and everyone in between, bringing people from all walks of life together. Arbor redefines what it means to be part of a neighbourhood in 2030.

Arbor is committed to creating not only a new lifestyle for 2030, but also a new form of architecture. Arbor has been designed through the primary lense of living, however secondary lenses are also key to this model, including off-the-grid self-sufficiency, cross-laminated-timber construction, and autonomous growth.

Arbor as a platform is operated by an AI system, called Arborist. Once a new Arbor member subscribes to the platform, they fill out a survey, specific for owners, renters and tourists, while they provide their social media details. Taking this data into account, the AI system, Arborist, creates a new profile for each member, then decides where best to place residents and guests within the different Arbor communities, placing them with other like-minded residents, making their experience in Arbor more meaningful.

Arbor does not provide conventional apartments, rather, the Arbor model is based on a universal module. This one module caters for singles, couples, and families. The module reflects all private space for the residents, containing only the bedroom and bathroom. In the case of families, two, three and four modules can be combined together, creating the Arbor equivalent of a 2-4 bedroom apartment.

A key design element of the modules, are a series of doors, both as entry points into the modules and as connections between modules. These doors allow for the flexibility of the space physically, as well as flexibility of the user. Ultimately, one module, could be used privately by three different residents at the same time. In this situation, one resident would own the module, while the other two would be renting a portion of the module. The *enfilade which defined classical architecture interiors, once again allows for the connection of modules, to suit the needs of families when multiple modules are required.

Enfilade: a suite of rooms with doorways in line with each other

The community brings 20 modules together, creating a minimum community of 20 people (one person per module), with up to 40 people possible (2 people per module). Beyond the module, all space within the community becomes shared. On the main floor, features a kitchen, dining, lounge, and outdoor terrace. On the mezzanine floor, quiet study spaces can be found. These spaces are accessible mainly to residents of that community, however friends and guests from the neighbourhood are welcome.

A central staircase links the two levels, with all circulation looking into the shared space, so residents can interact with those coming and going. The shared space of the community has been designed to encourage moments of social interaction between residents. The shared space opens up onto the outdoor terrace, which then links up with a bridge leading to the main vertical circulation tower, reminiscent of the old chimney stack of the Docklands Cotton Mills site. This circulation tower then links all communities with each other.

Community: a group of people living in the same place or having a particular characteristic in common. The AI places residents in communities which align with their interests.

The district brings two communities together, with a hydroponic urban farm linking them. The farm provides fresh produce for the residents of those communities, with 8 urban farms in total, dispersed among the 16 communities. The farms are 80% autonomous, operated once again by the AI system, Arborist. However the remaining 20% of work is still required by human labour, which is performed by the Arbor residents (owners and renters, but not tourists). Their contribution of time reflects the sharing of responsibilities which is key to a commune lifestyle. This required labour is rostered and shared, and managed by Arborist.

Located within each urban farm, are additional shared amenities which are accessible to residents in the whole neighbourhood. This offering of amenity is different to all districts, giving each district their own appeal and characteristic. These amenities have been programmed to cater for the 2030 lifestyle, and include a wardrobe center, parkland, agriculture production centre, digital library collection, water park, virtual reality centre, future centre (planetarium), and a drone charging and distribution centre. These amenities reflect the needs of both children and adults, and locals and tourists.

District: an area of a country or city, especially one characterized by a particular feature or activity. Each Arbor district is characterised by their amenity offering

The neighbourhood brings all the districts and their communities together, in what is the two-towers. On ground floor is a public market place. The surplus produce from the urban farms is distributed here, for both Arbor residents to purchase and for the local Footscray community. As each urban farm produces a slightly different crop, the residents can come here to get the produce that their farm may not have produced.

In addition to this, as hydroponic farming is limited to certain crops, the ground floor market place is in itself a greenhouse, growing more traditional soil-based crops, with fruit trees in particular. This creates a park-like environment within the market space, sheltered from the weather, yet open to the public.

This park-like environment spills out into the surrounding area of the site, which has been landscaped in a particular way as to mitigate flooding from the Maribyrnong River (due to predicted sea level rise and inundation). As a result, everything on the ground floor condition has been designed to minimise water damage and the impact from such a flood event.

Neighbourhood: a district or community within a town or city. This is the collection of all the communities and districts