We regularly update this section with the most commonly asked questions. If you can’t find an answer to your question, please don’t hesitate to contact us.
Most Nightingale buildings have a communal laundry area located on the rooftop. Removing laundries from individual apartment plans has the benefit of lowering construction and maintenance costs, and increasing private living space. Locating laundries on the rooftop alongside other shared facilities also means that neighbours cross paths with each other while doing their washing - and these incidental encounters are important for building a sense of community.
Nightingale Housing provides washing machines for the communal laundry. In recent projects, our partnership with Fisher & Paykel has enabled us to provide certified carbon neutral appliances.
Each resident community works out their own system for managing this shared space. We've found that over the course of resident get-togethers during the construction period, new communities will agree on how they will communicate as a group, and organise committees to oversee areas like the laundries, the communal gardens - and even the waste room.
See what residents have to say about using shared laundries in our interviews with Sophie, Tess and Max and Tiffany.
Each community/resident group, via the owners corporation, can choose how to manage common areas. For example, the Nightingale 1 owners corporation has chosen values-aligned contractors to maintain common areas. In their case, Miss V, a non-toxic cleaning service, maintains the common areas, the laundry and takes out the bins. Residents take care of smaller details, like cleaning the BBQ after use, looking after the worm farms, and managing the beehives.