The masterplan evolved from Canberra’s natural and built landscape and the aspiration for a retirement village focussed on community and quality of life
LDK commissioned Rothelowman to design its seniors’ living community in Yarralumla because of our exceptional understanding of how to create multi-residential communities that promote liveability and wellbeing.
Inside the western edge of Walter Burley Griffin’s masterplan for Canberra, sits outside the city’s urban environment. This open landscape is preserved for institutional uses, and open landscape and mountain views offering the ever-present feeling of nature. We developed the masterplan by – the landscape and architecture working together and engaging with the surrounding setting.
Planning the community
Large trees retained onsite anchor buildings and spaces, helping establish the form and character of the development. The buildings are of a significant scale, deliberately large to assert themselves in the landscape while maintaining a residential quality. Diagonal rows of single-storey villas nestle into the sloped site, while the free-form configuration of four- and five-storey apartment buildings introduces unique outdoor spaces into the masterplan.
The villas offer independent living at the northernmost part of the site and are a short walk from the village hub where the larger apartment buildings have community facilities and care services as needed. Buildings are oriented north or northwest for sunlight, and their increasing height and the gently sloped land allows for views across the site and surrounding green fields. Working with the existing terrain means that all the single level villas gain views out to the surrounding landscape.
