Alice

Who lives here?

My name's Alice. I live here with my cat Loki, who I started fostering during lockdown. I work in Arts and Culture, for a company called Back To Back Theatre based in Geelong, whose ensemble are performers who are perceived to have an intellectual disability/neurodiverse. I lead their screen team. I also work as Producer of performance and long-term engagements with Mammalian who are currently working with the Royal Botanic Gardens Victoria on a new work - Speed Dating with Cacti.

Do you travel to Geelong for work a lot?

I travel a lot for work generally and it’s very dependent on my schedule. For instance, last week I was working in Seoul. When I’m in Melbourne I generally travel to Geelong at least once a week, so I just jump on the V-line. I love it. You can do an hour of work that's really focused before a day in the office for meetings. I don’t have a car. I’ve got a bike that I really love to ride and I’m not shy about catching Ubers if I need to. It’s much cheaper than owning a car.

How did you hear about Nightingale?

This is the fifth place I’ve lived in four years thanks to the state of the housing market. I was renting at The Commons before this place. Perhaps I am an over thinker, but I wanted to see what living in a Nightingale home would be like before moving here. It was great in lots of ways. People, myself included, on paper can be affronted by “the community aspect”. Living at The Commons really cemented for me that "community" can be whatever you want it to be - essentially it’s just knowing who your neighbours are. Sometimes I am travelling a lot, sometimes I am working from home in a really intensive way, sometimes I am doing a lot of people-focused work and those schedules need a different kind of interaction with who I’m living around. Sometimes I’m in a social mood. Other times, I need solitude. Both are entirely okay. I think Nightingale is shifting the ecology of apartment living generally. It’s changing things for the better and I’m hoping more developers follow suit.

When I was younger, my parents lost their house and it was disruptive for a while. After that, I kind of fixated on the idea of having a place that was actually mine, something I could hang onto no matter what. Then I came across Nightingale’s work, and suddenly it seemed just slightly less like a pipe dream. I’m on an arts wage, so that’s tricky. It’s fairly unrelenting for everyone at the moment to buy anywhere. I’m not entirely sure how I did it in retrospect but it's a huge relief, and my gratitude comes in waves that I don’t have to shuffle anywhere until I make that call.

What made you decide on Nightingale Wurru wurru biik?

I looked at other places, like “affordable” townhouses, but the amount of work required on some very rundown options wasn’t realistic in terms of my skill set and budget. I knew I wanted to be on the north side and I love Brunswick. I’m lucky to have two siblings who are architects and my dad ran a construction business so I had good advisors around me when I was considering the apartment off-the-plan. I was attracted to the design and to an apartment that works well. It stays cool on hot days and warm when it’s cold. I’ve lived in heaps of share-houses with gaps underneath the doors so you’re wearing seven layers to bed with a hot water bottle and an electric blanket. It’s bonkers to me that you can live more comfortably in minus 30 degrees Minneapolis than when it’s 5 degrees in Melbourne. Honestly, I never ever thought I would live somewhere this comfortable or beautiful and that I would own it. It still feels surreal.

You’ve been here a couple of months now, has the apartment met your expectations?

There are always challenges with new builds but there’s a lot of shared knowledge as it swings into gear. Honestly, it’s all in the small things that have exceeded my expectations. Like Tim, the person who planted thousands of plants across the building, noticing a windy section of my planter box and I saw him standing in the hail one day, putting a special kind of mulch on my plants to help them thrive. The care that he has for the building really matches the whole ethos of the project.

I love the size of this community. There are 25 homes in my quarter and 99 homes in the precinct. You can weave in and out and find the people you click with.  It’s really healthy and vibrant. It’s also super quiet on the eastern side.

Have there been many community events yet?

More hangouts than events. I’ve been to the Brunswick Baths with new friends, eaten fresh banana bread on the rooftop in the mornings and had impromptu planting days with some newly arrived natives seedlings that needed new homes. That day was fun as Level 2 were quickly outside racing the sunset, passing shovels and soil across our balconies.

There’s a working from home crew that meetup sporadically to work on the rooftop to enjoy the sunshine when we need some motivation. People are always suggesting things to do and you can really tap in or out of that.

Have you used the bath house or the guest house yet?

I admit I felt a bit weird about the bath house to begin with but once I gave it a go, I really loved it. I sometimes use it two or three times a week. It has a sauna vibe and it’s great after I’ve played a long match of tennis.

I’ve booked the guest house next week for a friend coming from overseas - it’s so in demand, it’s such a good idea. I already want another one for longer stays.

There are a couple of commercial spaces available downstairs, what would you love to see open there?

I think the Studio spaces are so beautiful that anyone in a creative business would just absolutely dig it. You could have a really beautiful clothing store down there, or a bunch of them. A rehearsal space or artist residency space would be great as we wait for the redevelopment of the site at Saxon St in Brunswick, which was a home for a lot of creative types. The big square windows pour in natural light. A yoga studio would be great.