How students are tackling the future of affordable housing and urban design in Sydney
When architecture professor Philip Oldfield finished his degree 25 years ago, he was told he could do anything he wanted but “don’t do housing. And whatever you do, don’t do social housing.”
He ignored this advice. Oldfield became a specialist in high-rise housing and became head of school at the University of NSW’s Built Environment, which offers Australia’s only master of architecture specializing in housing.
This week, 30 soon-to-be graduates took part in a real-world challenge on how to improve comfort, livability and affordability in the second and third phases of a Landcom project called Joinery that will provide hundreds of new homes in Annandale.
“People spend 70 percent of their lives at home, more than two-thirds of their lives,” Oldfield said. “Think about the impact this has on people’s emotions, their well-being and their health.”
Landcom CEO Alexander Wendler said the competition challenges students to design housing that people can afford. To celebrate the state developer’s 50th anniversary and offer $10,000 in prize money, the contestant asks students to imagine what housing, communities and urban development will look like in the next 50 years.
Loneliness is a real problem everywhere, Wendler said. And many students were intrigued to see their ideas about community and common spaces. “We believe that the quality of a city is not really determined by its skyline, but … what happens at street level and how people experience that place every day.”
Students were asked to design 357 affordable rental units and homes for the second and third phases of the project, as well as shops, a central plaza with lush natural greenery, shaded seating and public artwork for new pedestrian links between Parramatta Road and Pyrmont Bridge Road. (The first phase, a 220-unit rental construction project, is not part of the project.)
Raphaela Challita, 24, of Bayside, dressed to match her towers, said the residence is more than just shelter. “What if the future of housing was colorful and welcoming and helped people feel belonging, especially in the affordable housing sector?”
Emily Rowlings, 28, from Leichhardt, designed a six-metre-wide buffer zone of communal areas for her apartment block on Parramatta Road to isolate homes from traffic and be used for exercising or working from home.
Annabelle Ferris, 22, from Randwick, focused on flexibility. Partly inspired by French architects Vassal and Lacaton, he enabled flexible layouts, using winter gardens to offer an alternative lifestyle in the same space.
Because the block is located on what will become a “super bus route,” Hubert Zhang, 25, of Burwood, has outfitted the high-rise block’s lower floors with a health centre, pharmacy and coworking and co-working spaces that encourage residents and others to connect.
Every second floor had common areas such as a reading area or an additional kitchen. “The idea is that our apartments or houses don’t need the pressure of having so many different rooms,” Zhang said.
He also suggested a number of rentable guest apartments for residents to use, and said people often buy larger homes than they need to accommodate families who may visit occasionally.
Javni Dave, 25, from Rosebery, has responded to predictions that Sydney airport will eventually be flooded by rising sea levels by proposing a much taller tower. “Height controls that determine how tall we can build buildings probably won’t apply in the same way.”
Jack Guyer, 23, from Ashfield, has designed a block that places affordable family flats close to a large courtyard. He wanted to provide the things they loved in suburban single-family homes, but in high-density living. “So they really want to live there instead of having to.”
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Julie Power is senior reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect with: X or email.
