SMITH COLLECTIVE

Two years on from its first life as the 2018 C ommonwealth Games athletes’ village, Smith Collective is Australia’s largest build to rent development.

It’s 5 km from Surfers Paradise and comprises 1,252 apartments and townhouses, shops, and a large public plaza and park.

ARM, in partnership with Brisbane architecture firms Arkhefield and Archipelago, masterplanned the community and designed the six residential and retail lots for client Grocon.

A blooming double helix snakes through the site a yellow-rimmed arbor that twists around a water feature called The Disc at the centre of the village heart. The Disc references Natural Bridge, the much-loved waterfall that streams through the top of a basalt cave at nearby Springbrook National Park.

CLIENT Grocon COMPLETION 2017

VALUE $53 3M

LOCATION Gold Coast, QLD

AWARDS Karl Langer Award Urban Design

Features

→ Green Star Features

→ Six Leaves using UDIA EnviroDevelopment rating tool

→ 1,252 homes

→ Main Street as an open public space - Commonwealth Games

The site, a former harness-racing and greyhound track, is ringed by the Gold Coast University Hospital and Grif fith University, as well as remnant bushland. It is a village modelled on a city so the buildings are taller and closer together than in many suburbs. This leaves room for more public space.

Smith Collective is a pilot project for the new Green Star Communities sustainability tool and has achieved a 6-Star rating.