West Village is a mixed-use, masterplanned heritage community located some 800 metres from the Brisbane CBD in the West End district. The 2.6-hectare complex was originally part of a thriving industrial district that included two (now-listed) ice cream factories that functioned between 1928 and 1996.

The dilapidated remains of the site have now been redeveloped into a high-density, lifestyle-driven village that is centred around the reinstated factories, featuring eight residential towers, three commercial office buildings, an 18,446 square meter retail and dining precinct, and two park areas. In doing so, the strategy has been to achieve a balance between residents and occupiers on the one hand, and outside visitors on the other.

Rather than being purely returns-driven, developer Sekisui House adopted a long-term view. Opting against taking profits upfront by building more residential and fewer mixed-use facilities, it instead invested in creation of value over time via a commitment to placemaking.

In pursuing this, designers again sought a balance between preservation of the heritage aspects of the site and activating it with a mix of retail and dining experiences. These include permanent installations, year-round offerings, and one-off events.

Creating a sense of community was another priority – management organise regular events catering to both residents and non-residents. In addition, they purpose-built a venue for one of Queensland’s Leading multi-arts institutions, including a theatre, exhibition galleries, and rehearsal studios.

Beyond this, designers also consciously avoided the hard-surface urbanism so common to Melbourne and Sydney by focusing instead on sub-tropical aspects of the Brisbane lifestyle. West Village has been constructed to be pedestrian-focused, with its centre of gravity anchored around The Common, a green space created opposite one of the heritage factories and from which a heavily-planted laneway network initiates.

Developers also committed a larger-than-normal budget to creating some 6,500 square metres of public space, and has been awarded a Six Star Green Star certification. The project boasts more than 10,000 native plants, with more than 50 percent of the land area devoted to greenery, parks, laneways and gardens as a means to offset the heat island effect. It also features a number of sustainability initiatives, including rainwater and greywater harvesting and recycling.

Another focus for developers was to be flexible in the way they constructed the residential facilities. Instead of building to the 15-storey template mandated by the zoning, therefore, some towers were built higher, thereby freeing-up open space on lower-scale buildings elsewhere in the development.

The placemaking strategy has already borne fruit, with residential values having risen significantly since the project opened. The successful commitment to using social infrastructure as a cornerstone of the development philosophy has created a new model locally for mixed-use development. As one juror said, “this type of mature, site-specific zoning is apparently a work in progress in Brisbane, and the fact that [West Village] has turned out to be such a great people place creates a future precedent for authorities to work with developers rather than just saying: “these are the rules””.

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