Interview W/Toby Dean From Nightingale
What is Nightingale Housing?
Nightingale Housing is a registered charity dedicated to delivering high-quality, sustainable housing. We believe everyone deserves greater housing security. At the heart of every Nightingale project is a clear set of principles focused on social connection, housing equity and environmental sustainability. Nightingale is a small, Melbourne-based team that has been operating for almost 10 years.
How are you involved in the Marrickville building?
Nightingale Housing was involved in shaping the design and sustainability principles of Nightingale Marrickville. This included ensuring high-quality shared spaces and a strong urban interface with the surrounding neighbourhood. We were also involved in establishing the resident allocation process, supporting the formation of the community, and helping ensure residents were well settled into the building.
What does it mean to have SIT/Baba’s Place in an affiliated space of yours?
Like Nightingale, the Baba’s Place team challenges the status quo. With a strong emphasis on community and rethinking traditional models of operation, they are highly values-aligned. Having Baba’s Place located beneath the residences creates a vibrant, active ground plane and strengthens connections between residents and the broader community. We care deeply about fostering these kinds of interactions and building wider networks of connection.
What’s next for Nightingale Housing?
We are currently focusing our attention on projects in Victoria, along with some projects in Adelaide. We would love to deliver more projects like Nightingale Marrickville, but they require generous and courageous partners, like Fresh Hope Communities, to bring them to life.We have a number of apartment and townhouse projects underway in Melbourne and look forward to continuing to have a meaningful impact on housing in Australia.
