The Hexad Studio team from Monash University has won the People’s Choice Award for their 2023 Fleetwood Challenge Cup submission.
The team’s proposal featured a unique beehive-inspired building design for a site in East Malvern, Melbourne.
The building comprises of one, two and three-bedroom apartments and also hosts shared facilities on the ground floor, which will bring together residents and local inhabitants.
Inspiration for the three-dimensional, hexagonal modules of the design were drawn from the natural world and bees.
The developers of the chosen site location at Waverley Road in East Malvern — Sumitomo Forestry Australia — also provided their developmental input into the overall design.
Named the Hexa-Cell Residence, the proposal aims to showcase innovative, cost-effective and sustainable architecture.
The modules are intended to be adaptable, allowing residents to customise their living spaces through the addition or subtraction of hexagonal build pieces.
Hexad Studio team lead Olivia Basilec said: “It’s very exciting for our team, Hexad Studio, to be awarded the People’s Choice Award at this major Australian design competition. It highlights the passion and effort we each gave the project. Modular building and prefabrication are still so under utilised in Australia, so this competition was a great opportunity for us to learn more about the potential for real world applications.”
The theme for this year’s Fleetwood Challenge Cup was “Building for the Future; NOW” and attracted 14 cross-disciplinary teams from universities across Australia — including Curtin University, Monash University and Western Sydney University.
All submitted designs had to include innovative properties featuring commercial and residential elements.