Students from the School of Architecture and Planning at The University of Auckland have designed affordable residential housing for the elderly of Opotiki, Bay of Plenty.

Juno Huang and Wendy Zheng produced a new model of pensioner accommodation for a small, registered charity, the Rangimarie Trust, which is looking for funding now to help achieve the next stage of the project. The undergraduate students were delighted when their plans were chosen from dozens of submissions.

Their design concept is for a cluster of single houses, which has an overall village feel but which provides independent, comfortable and private accomodation for single, elderly people. Each house features a deck and, together, the decks act as an essential public space, like a spine threading and connecting the houses.

The Rangimarie Trust provides quality, low-cost rental homes for elderly people on small, fixed incomes in its local area. The Trust currently owns a block of land with a dozen units, which were financed by making and selling patchwork quilts, running market stalls and raffles. It recently purchased more land for development. The Trustees approached senior lecturer Bill McKay from The University of Auckland for assistance with design ideas to help fulfil their specific needs. This included access ramps, solar heating, raised floors to prevent flooding, wider doors to accommodate wheelchair users, and a maximum budget of $90,000 per unit.

Bill sent the Trust’s brief to his architecture students to see what they could create. Huang and Zheng’s designs proved to be exactly what the Trust had been looking for.

“It was gratifying to see young undergraduates come up with such a good design,” said McKay. “Apart from nailing the requirements of the brief, they also produced a design sensitive to the church next door that will add to the townscape values of Opotiki by creating a nice little community precinct.”