Goodwin Village, Farrer

Client: Goodwin Aged Care Services
Size: 30,000m²
Cost: $100M
Date: 2021

Goodwin Aged Care Services (Goodwin), first established in 1954, is Canberra’s oldest and largest aged care provider. Farrer was the second village to be constructed in 1977 including a 64 bedroom specialist aged care facility, George Sautelle House, which was the first purpose-designed facility of its kind in Canberra, and 73 independent living units (ILU’s).

Since 2004 Goodwin has been involved in an extensive program of new development and redevelopment of existing villages, the existing 4 storey apartment block at Goodwin Farrer being the first of these projects in 2006. This was followed by the total redevelopment of Ainslie, a new village adjoining the existing Monash village now known as Monash Green and most recently a new village in Crace called The Central.

Goodwin pride themselves on creating the highest quality living environments for seniors which has been reflected in numerous awards over the past decade, including most recently for their Monash Green Village receiving the prestigious 2015 Property Council of Australia’s Lend Lease award for Best Retirement Living Development in Australia.

The redevelopment of their Farrer village as a timely opportunity to provide an up to date living environment for seniors which makes better use of an attractive site to allow local residents to stay within their community as their needs change. Indeed the site is ideally located in the Woden Valley area which has amongst the highest percentage of aged persons per capita in Canberra.

This design concept has been developed through extensive consultation with the Goodwin executive and Goodwin residents, interested parties from the local Farrer community, ACTPLA, TAMS and other authorities.

Goodwin is seeking to create a sophisticated, active, high-quality living environment for seniors which:

• Sits comfortably in the broader context of Farrer and avoids an institutional character
• Offers support, security and a sense of well-being for residents and their families and friends
• Includes high quality, low maintenance apartment units offering a diverse range of accommodation options to suit different needs and budgets and allowing residents to age in place in their community
• Provides units that are 100% adaptable allowing ageing in place for residents
• Offers a range of amenities and services for residents
• Will include a purpose-designed residential aged care facility which will specialise in dementia, palliative and bariatric care
• Includes retention of most perimeter trees and attractive new landscaping across the development
• Incorporates an exciting architectural form, character and palette of materials which will sit comfortably in its context in Farrer and which will be attractive to future residents
• Incorporates ecologically sustainable design principles, and in particular excellent solar access for all living areas and water harvesting initiatives

In summary the proposed redevelopment of Goodwin Farrer Village incorporates the following:

• Retention of the 19-unit Independent Living Unit block constructed in 2004 (located near the Marshall Street entrance to the site – now known as Block G)
• A new Clubhouse
• 154 ILU’s across the site
• A new 124 bed Residential Aged Care Facility (RACF)
• New site services and infrastructure requirements for the development
• New landscaping and civil works
• A men’s shed
• 267 car parking spaces comprising:
  • 1 car per unit in basement parking
  • 1 car per member of staff in basement parking
  • Visitor car parks distributed across the site