Building for Boomers
Urban Connection , 30/04/2008
As the early baby boomers move into their 60s, one urban designer has dedicated himself to catering for their lifestyle. Brian Toyota speaks to Paul Skelton about creating a minimalist and socially interactive community.
As the baby boomers – people born between 1946 and 1964 – approach retirement age, a $180 million luxury community aimed at this market is set to provide for their specific requirements.
Seachange Village, in the Gold Coast suburb of Arundel, is the result of research by urban developer Seachange Developments. The research found that baby boomers considered conventional retirement villages almost offensive, because they cater for a less active lifestyle.
“Baby boomer developments are a growing market,” says ML Design design director Brian Toyota, the master planner and architect behind Seachange Village.
“There are a number of these developments happening all around the Gold Coast and throughout South-East Queensland.”
Toyota moved to Australia from Canada in the mid-1980s to masterplan the residential and commercial precinct of Sanctuary Cove. More recently he has worked on the Casuarina Beach and Salt beachfront developments.
“What makes Seachange different is that it is an integrated lifestyle development, not just a subdivision,” he says.
“As urban designers, we saw an opportunity to enhance the baby boomer lifestyle by incorporating new urbanism and neo-traditional planning principles. This meant being able to use less land.
“Baby boomers can buy a house in the community with no lawn to be mowed and no large garden area to be taken care of. These are things we have found to be appealing to this market.”
The entire development will feature 370 houses with two or three bedrooms and double garages. The properties will be on smaller than average lots – as low as 250m².
The masterplan adopts a neo-traditional streetscape incorporating 6m rear lanes. New urbanism principles have allowed the development to feature narrow 25m by 10m blocks with a garage on the rear lane.
“When people move out of big suburban houses into a place like this, they don’t want to give up any of the amenities that go with suburban living. The rear lane allows us to do that.
In similar suburban developments, where houses are less than 14m wide, the streetscape is dominated by driveways and garage doors. This is not something that lends itself to promoting social interaction between residents.
“We have learnt that in addition to a two car garage and a smaller low-maintenance yard, there is still a requirement for people who need to park large recreational vehicles, motor homes or boats and trailers.”
Seachange Village will have a dedicated, covered and secure parking area under the lawn bowls club for large recreational vehicles.
“One of the things we were conscious of when we were designing this project is that we wanted to promote the concept of pedestrian permeability,” Toyota says.
“We didn’t just want to create convenient vehicular access to shopping centres; we wanted to make it a more pedestrian friendly environment. Too many suburban developments these days only cater for vehicular traffic.
“We tried to create a better destination from a pedestrian’s point of view as well as a vehicular point of view. Doing this successfully is in the finer-grain detail of how these things are put together.”
On the opposite side of the arterial road that Seachange Village backs on to – Napper Road – is a shopping centre with a convenience store, supermarket and medical centre. Toyota says this presented an ideal opportunity to expand on the idea of community.
“We were mindful of creating a pedestrian connection to the shopping centre from our development, so we located a commercial, mixed-use shopping complex in our own community to be developed for general community use. “We introduced two commercial buildings and opened them up to a small public piazza area, where we located a community centre – which is like an old community hall – that could be hired out for weddings or classes.
“It was decided that the public piazza would sit between the two strips of shops in our village because it was directly opposite the main pedestrian access to the existing shops across the road.”
ML Design also positioned a row of two storey townhouses along the side of Napper Road. Toyota says the townhouses are part of the community, but they have front doors opening to the main street to activate the streetscape rather than having a tall fence encompassing the development.
“Seachange Village by its nature is a gated community, due to the security requirements of its residents. But we’ve been careful in this design to make sure the notion of its being a gated community is reduced.
“The entry gate was pushed back 50m down a short boulevard so it didn’t front the street.
“We didn’t want to create an island development with a tall fence and landscaping around the entire development. Rather, we tried to activate the streetscape to create a better sense of community for residents in the development and from the outside.”
Toyota says the development is ultimately trying to create a traditional town or village centre for the suburb of Arundel.
“Seachange offers a distinct social opportunity in terms of meeting the neighbours through the incorporation of a residents’ club. Most social contact comes from the workplace, but when people retire or semi-retire they lose that network.”
To enhance resident interaction, a clubhouse featuring facilities for lawn bowls, tennis, swimming, dancing and hobbies has been incorporated into the design. And all houses feature a veranda to promote casual interaction among neighbours.
“All of these elements come together to create a better sense of community in the development as well as in the overall district,” Toyota says.
“If we can use the design process to make developments more compact and efficient, while creating a better sense of community, then that is something that should be applied beyond the baby boomer market.”
Overwhelming response to the project has prompted Seachange to seek sites elsewhere on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, in northern New South Wales and in Far North Queensland.
As the baby boomers – people born between 1946 and 1964 – approach retirement age, a $180 million luxury community aimed at this market is set to provide for their specific requirements.
Seachange Village, in the Gold Coast suburb of Arundel, is the result of research by urban developer Seachange Developments. The research found that baby boomers considered conventional retirement villages almost offensive, because they cater for a less active lifestyle.
“Baby boomer developments are a growing market,” says ML Design design director Brian Toyota, the master planner and architect behind Seachange Village.
“There are a number of these developments happening all around the Gold Coast and throughout South-East Queensland.”
Toyota moved to Australia from Canada in the mid-1980s to masterplan the residential and commercial precinct of Sanctuary Cove. More recently he has worked on the Casuarina Beach and Salt beachfront developments.
“What makes Seachange different is that it is an integrated lifestyle development, not just a subdivision,” he says.
“As urban designers, we saw an opportunity to enhance the baby boomer lifestyle by incorporating new urbanism and neo-traditional planning principles. This meant being able to use less land.
“Baby boomers can buy a house in the community with no lawn to be mowed and no large garden area to be taken care of. These are things we have found to be appealing to this market.”
The entire development will feature 370 houses with two or three bedrooms and double garages. The properties will be on smaller than average lots – as low as 250m².
The masterplan adopts a neo-traditional streetscape incorporating 6m rear lanes. New urbanism principles have allowed the development to feature narrow 25m by 10m blocks with a garage on the rear lane.
“When people move out of big suburban houses into a place like this, they don’t want to give up any of the amenities that go with suburban living. The rear lane allows us to do that.
In similar suburban developments, where houses are less than 14m wide, the streetscape is dominated by driveways and garage doors. This is not something that lends itself to promoting social interaction between residents.
“We have learnt that in addition to a two car garage and a smaller low-maintenance yard, there is still a requirement for people who need to park large recreational vehicles, motor homes or boats and trailers.”
Seachange Village will have a dedicated, covered and secure parking area under the lawn bowls club for large recreational vehicles.
“One of the things we were conscious of when we were designing this project is that we wanted to promote the concept of pedestrian permeability,” Toyota says.
“We didn’t just want to create convenient vehicular access to shopping centres; we wanted to make it a more pedestrian friendly environment. Too many suburban developments these days only cater for vehicular traffic.
“We tried to create a better destination from a pedestrian’s point of view as well as a vehicular point of view. Doing this successfully is in the finer-grain detail of how these things are put together.”
On the opposite side of the arterial road that Seachange Village backs on to – Napper Road – is a shopping centre with a convenience store, supermarket and medical centre. Toyota says this presented an ideal opportunity to expand on the idea of community.
“We were mindful of creating a pedestrian connection to the shopping centre from our development, so we located a commercial, mixed-use shopping complex in our own community to be developed for general community use. “We introduced two commercial buildings and opened them up to a small public piazza area, where we located a community centre – which is like an old community hall – that could be hired out for weddings or classes.
“It was decided that the public piazza would sit between the two strips of shops in our village because it was directly opposite the main pedestrian access to the existing shops across the road.”
ML Design also positioned a row of two storey townhouses along the side of Napper Road. Toyota says the townhouses are part of the community, but they have front doors opening to the main street to activate the streetscape rather than having a tall fence encompassing the development.
“Seachange Village by its nature is a gated community, due to the security requirements of its residents. But we’ve been careful in this design to make sure the notion of its being a gated community is reduced.
“The entry gate was pushed back 50m down a short boulevard so it didn’t front the street.
“We didn’t want to create an island development with a tall fence and landscaping around the entire development. Rather, we tried to activate the streetscape to create a better sense of community for residents in the development and from the outside.”
Toyota says the development is ultimately trying to create a traditional town or village centre for the suburb of Arundel.
“Seachange offers a distinct social opportunity in terms of meeting the neighbours through the incorporation of a residents’ club. Most social contact comes from the workplace, but when people retire or semi-retire they lose that network.”
To enhance resident interaction, a clubhouse featuring facilities for lawn bowls, tennis, swimming, dancing and hobbies has been incorporated into the design. And all houses feature a veranda to promote casual interaction among neighbours.
“All of these elements come together to create a better sense of community in the development as well as in the overall district,” Toyota says.
“If we can use the design process to make developments more compact and efficient, while creating a better sense of community, then that is something that should be applied beyond the baby boomer market.”
Overwhelming response to the project has prompted Seachange to seek sites elsewhere on the Gold and Sunshine Coasts, in northern New South Wales and in Far North Queensland.
This article has been reproduced with permission for URBAN magazine, (http://www.urbanmag.com.au/) APRIL QUARTER 2008.
