A. Aggregated Studies for the Master Plan of Land Portion 230

Housing studies have proceeded methodically from the assemblies of a typical house described in the precedent section, to housing types that respond to recurring program needs, to examples of aggregated housing that addresses privacy at common property lines, off site views on parks and streets, and the accommodation of footpaths, vehicular circulation, and parking.

All four of these studies are based on previous studies of one hectare blocks but modified for the contingencies of the site. These blocks have the highest site coverages on the master plan for Section 230 because they are well situated near public buildings, public spaces, and commercial blocks.

The master plan provides a site for public buildings on the east side of the rugby field. This precinct, on a prominent site surrounded by main roads, has been developed with a building site for a church and a public hall. The larger setting is created by live-work units. On the east side of the public block there is a paved plaza. The master plan has two principal parks or fields but no other place for commercial activity. The ground floors of the public buildings are permeable, facilitating passage from one outdoor space to another – from the scale of the rugby field to the scale of the green courtyard and the paved plaza.

Aside from the church, the building types are flexible and can accommodate a number of uses. The ground floor can be a market or a public loggia. The upper floor can be a town hall or classrooms. The live-work units on the other side of the road are integrated into the plaza so there is a commercial and residential component to these spaces as well. The live-work units are important in providing a setting for the public buildings with a reasonable scale – smaller than the rugby field to the west and separated from the un-remediated landscape to the east.

The rugby field is a large generous space, but the public precinct is designed to provide a number of spaces at different scales, with different surfaces and different sun and wind exposures. Trees in front of the long colonnade on the field provide an intermediate scale. The undercroft of the buildings provides continuous shade immediately and throughout the day.

If Nauruans are to be afforded choices in housing, both the sizes of the houses and the sizes of the lots need to vary. In the relatively compact studies in the hectare north of the rugby field, lots can be combined to increase lot size but the likely upper limits is four small lots combined into large lots of approximately 1000 square meters.

The perimeter blocks of the east neighbourhood of the Section 230 master plan afford the chance to build on larger lots with fewer common property lines, though if the housing is subsidized, there will be the problem of how to award lots that are likely to be fewer in number.

While the shapes of lots near neighbourhood centres are usually simple, neighbourhood perimeters also afford lots with a greater variety of shapes. Likely odd shaped lots will not require special types but will have the same house types – perhaps bigger compound types –with secure inner yards and unwalled outer yards of varying sizes and shapes.

SECTION 4.A in the public areas. affordable and therefore help underwrite the infrastructure costs of this east neighbourhood.

Each house sits on a small public space and these spaces, strung out along mid-block footpaths, vary in size so that the experience of walking through the neighbourhood varies. Generally, the site coverage decreases toward the perimeter of the first development phase. Here there is a small public space on both sides of the footpath. The long views are behind us in this view but several houses in the middle of this block are afforded long perimeter views because of these small public spaces.

The several buildings on the block form four public spaces – an elevated terrace overlooking the rugby filed, a courtyard for the chapel, a green lawn, and a paved commercial space on the east side of the block. These spaces are formed by live-work units with commercial ground floors and residential upper floors.

On the upper side of the ring road, the wooded hillside is steeper and more expensive to develop, and the trees are an invaluable part of the setting. The housing extends to the hospital where a road descends from the upper site. The housing thins to the north as the main road descends and high elevation sites narrow.

for those who need new houses but wish to remain near the sea and the lush vegetation of the coastal zone.

The scope of this infill study is bounded on the south side by the new port, on the north side by the hospital and community college, on the west by the sea, and on the east by the wooded slope above the island’s ring road. The bounded are corresponds roughly to the derelict housing built before independence by the British Phosphate Corporation. The site is on a nice, buildable 5% slope. The lowest housing, at about seven meters, is well above conservative projections for sea level rise.

The beach is about three times as wide as the existing beach. This serves several purposes. It keeps the housing at higher elevations. It increases a public asset. It absorbs temporary uses, like the construction camp for port workers. It provides a buffer where housing is upslope from the container yard, allowing views over it.

The upper portion of the site has larger development pads for multi-family housing. The lower site has the same small parcels and blocks used in Section 230 for single family houses.

There are provisions for open landscaped parcels next to most every home. Parking is in select areas, but vehicles can use the narrow streets that subdivide the site. Provisions have been made for public spaces and public buildings. Paths and small streets lead to the sea at regular intervals, providing access for all Nauruans.

The principal focus of the master planning is Section 230, Topside, but we have been allowed to study select sites on the island perimeter where elevations are higher than projected sea level rise in 2100. This is a proposal for the site of British Phosphate Commission housing built in the 1960’s.

This site was selected for its depth from the beach to the ring road, for its elevation, and because of the condition of the existing housing. Despite the condition of the housing, the ownership of the site will present a challenge to any proposed new use, just as it has at the sites near the water just to the south, where there is a more modest resettlement plan for the new port facility.

This proposal extends from the island’s ring road, here at elevation 17 meters above sea level, 200 meters west to an elevation of 7 meters, and roughly 100 meters from the shoreline. The average gradient is five percent. In the north-south direction it is as wide as three rows of the BPC housing. The proposal covers roughly 4.5 hectares.

There is commercial and civic space along the ring road and around an upper plaza, multifamily courtyard housing just downslope from the ring road, and single family housing nearest the water. On the centre line of the precinct there is a hall on the high side and a chapel on the lower plaza, replacing two Pentecostal churches in the vicinity.

Site coverage and scale generally decrease toward the water, so the proposal does not present a phalanx of buildings from the public beach. Footpaths in four locations lead from the highest parts of the site to the water. The water can be seen from points all over the site.

The single family houses have walled inner yards and the multi-family housing has secure semi-public courtyards. At the same time, there is a significant network of public spaces bounded by these secure spaces.

The single family housing, on pads 14 meters on a side, is thin and relatively expensive but well-lit and ventilated. The multi-family housing has the dimensions of the BPC housing being replaced by the counter proposal. Unfortunately, the gradient, which makes the site so beautiful, also requires the burden of additional site costs.

Figure 48 - This detail of the overall plan shows how the slope is organized in more detail. Multi-family housing on the upper slope is organized around secure courtyards for a handful of families. Generally this housing is 7.5 meters deep, and capable of being two bedrooms wide. Single family housing is more typically 3.6 to 4 meters wide – less efficient building envelopes that afford the light and cross ventilation everyone seems to want. There is a rich network of open public spaces that vary in size, but each single family house also has a secure inner yard bounded by a wall.

As housing gets to the lower site, the density and site coverage, which is quite high near the ring road, thins out so that from the beach there is a seawall, but no phalanx of buildings walls. This should improve the quality of the public beach. There is open space next to most every house site that leverages the space of the secure yards, but which is more public.

- Footpaths at regular intervals extend from the ring road to the sea so that everyone can get the shoreline. These paved paths can also serve to get limited numbers of vehicles to the lower site and proximate to all residential parcels. These footpaths are lined by single family houses on 200 square meter lots and by walls enclosing inner yards that can be secured. Within these inner yards are trees that will make the footpaths attractive. The upper view looks up one of these footpaths toward the multi-family housing on the upper site; the lower view shows what it is like to descend to the sea from above.

This higher view, however foreshortened, shows most of the aspects of the site plan that have already been described – single family houses on the lower site, multi-family housing on the upper site, ample public spaces spread evenly throughout the site for everyone’s use. The housing thins toward the water to open up views from the land which also improves the quality of the public beach.

The height and cost of the sea wall is variable. It is high here because the lower public plazas have been leveled. This is a beautiful, sloped site but sloped sites do increase site development costs. On the hillside you can see a chapel on a prominent site reserved for public buildings. This wouldn’t have to be a chapel, but there are two churches in the re-development area that should be replaced. The World War II monument is just to the south of here, and this could also be a memorial chapel.

The wooded hillside in the upper portion of the view is a prominent part of this coastal setting. It will take a while for vegetation and shade to be restored to the topside, whereas the coast is already lush with irreplaceable canopy trees, and these trees should be incorporated into development sites wherever possible.