Cabramurra Township
Visualisation: Art Michael
Cabramurra is Australia’s highest and coldest village due to its location atop the Snowy Mountains. The original township was constructed in the 1940s to house Snowy Mountains Scheme workers and their families, but eventually transitioned to accommodate temporary transit and drive-in-drive-out (DIDO) residents working on the scheme as well as the new Snowy Hydro 2.0.
Snowy Hydro has engaged Fender Katsalidis to re-masterplan and design new accommodation to house employees of the energy provider due to catastrophic damage left to the area as a result of the recent bushfires.
The masterplan focuses on safe, covered access between accommodation buildings and communal amenities. Accommodation consists of two types of units – transit buildings and DIDO buildings.
The masterplan features communal facilities including a conference centre, gym, indoor pool, games rooms, dining rooms, lounges and co-working spaces, as well as a medical centre, discovery centre, executive retreat and even a fire station.
Due to high altitude and weather restrictions, there is a limited window of opportunity to build. This necessitates the prefabrication of buildings during the winter, with the remainder to be constructed over the summer months.
Visualisation: ART
All of the buildings are designed to a low scale and display a palette of alpine colours to fit into the local landscape.
The initial transit building is expected to be completed in April 2022 with two additional buildings staged for completion over the following years.
Collaborating on the project are Oculus with landscape design and Ross Harding from Finding Infinity responsible for ESD elements.
Visualisation: Art Michael
Visualisation: ART