Indicative Area Diagram for 75x45m site - 3400 sq m

This Indicative Area Diagram is a "mud-map" possibility of how 2711 square metres of floor space could fit onto a site 75.5 m wide (E-W) and 45 m deep (N-S) - ie. a 3397.5 square metre site area. It assumes roadways on all sides. It is a proof of concept. It is not a design.
Indicative Area Diagram - landscape aspect If the image above looks bad on your screen, it is because it has been set up to print nicely as part of the page. If you want to see a better version on your screen, there are some other links at the bottom of this page.

Why 2711 sqm on a 75x45m site?

The diagram is for 2711 sq m floor area because this is the total floor area given by our first summary design brief (June 2001) (think of 24 dwellings x 100sqm av. + 311 sqm common house).

The dimensions of the land on the diagram are based on our preferred part of the 246 Stewart Street site beside CERES, as determined by two design workshops on Sunday 15 July and Saturday 21 July. But it might as well be any other piece of land of similar proportions. Read more about these workshops on our Preferred Site web page.

Maximising the open space

The Indicative Area Diagram mud-map shows a building mass that is deeper and taller at the Eastern and Western ends, with quite shallow buildings in the middle. This configuration maximises the width of the common open space at the centre of the cohousing site. The open space is 23 metres width (North-South) in the middle, but only 10 metres wide at each end.

The diagram shows 12 basic building blocks across each row, not to indicate 12 buildings or dwellings, but simply to show how the total floor area was summed up. Ie. It does not mean that there will be 12 dwellings in each row. The ground floor of a row might have 4 apartments. The buildings might all be apartments, or could be a mix with townhouses.
There may also be some paths or covered walkways dividing the buildings at points. The rows of numbers (the top row is 77, 56, 40, 70, 100, etc) show the floor areas of each of the building blocks on each floor of the building mass.

Remember, this diagram is not an actual design, but rather, it is a proof-of-concept for showing how a certain amount of building might fit on a certain sized piece of land. If you want to see what designs for Merri Cohousing might look like refer to Meagan York's designs.

Minimising overshadowing of the open space by the northern dwellings

Only the southern side has a third story, as the northern side must be kept low to minimise overshadowing of the common open space. In this diagram, the third story is set back a bit from the street/lane, and is 16.3 metres wide on the South-West corner, and 14.8 metres wide on the South-East corner (numbers chosen simply to get the specified floor area to fit).

The two-story building mass on the north side could have useful roof space used for such functions as roof-top gardens, clothes lines and private outdoor areas. 

Northern side: Ground floor is 512 sqm + First Floor is 549 sqm = 1061 sqm
Southern side: Ground floor is 740 sqm + First Floor is 633 sqm = 1373 sqm
             + Second floor is 277 sqm ->   total southern side = 1650 sqm

                    Northern side (1061) + Southern side (1650) = 2711 sqm

Refer also to

  • the hand-drawn version of this diagram for more of the rationale (by Adam Tiller based on calculations by Simon Tiller), and to
  • the full-size original TIFF version of this diagram, completed on 24 July 2001 by Simon Tiller and generated from AutoCAD, and
  • a full-size GIF version,
  • Moreland Council's opinion of this diagram on 24 July 2001 - only members of the MerriCoho-active group will be able to read this.