Urban Tetris | City Above The City | Experimental Housing | Competition based project

Location | East Perth Train Station, Perth WA

A modular & affordable housing proposal for the international Metsa Wood competition.

This experimental housing project, designed in collaboration with Dev Mawjee for the international Plan B: City Above the City competition, explored the potential of building above existing infrastructure to address the pressures of rapid urbanisation—specifically in Perth, Australia.

Our proposal sits atop the East Perth Train Station, a brutalist structure currently at risk of demolition, and instead reimagines it as a platform for sustainable vertical growth. The concept aimed to retain the social qualities of suburban living—01_the street, 02_the park, 03_the verandah, 04_the shed, 05_the yard and 06_the corner store—within a high-density urban model.

Using modular construction based on Kerto LVL timber, the system allows for prefabricated, adaptable housing that can be installed with minimal disruption and built by unskilled labor. The design accommodates diverse living needs—from students to families—and integrates green walls, natural light, and ventilation, while central service cores and mesh “streets” provide infrastructure and community interaction. Ultimately, the project challenges the binary between sprawl and density, offering a socially rich and sustainable alternative for urban expansion.

The chosen site East Perth train station, is ideal for this project due to its proximity to the CBD, as well as accessibility to public transport and main arterial roads. Cities such as Perth highlight the societal sprawl that engages in unsustainable population growth. In researching the expanding population and the motives that drive this it is possible to see aspects other than land allocation that have contributed to urban sprawl.