‘Beautiful to look at and wonderful to live in’: new pattern designs could be next art deco or red brick classics | Sydney

Airy Scandinavian interiors, shaded balconies, light-filled courtyards; could these be Sydney’s next art deco apartment blocks or red brick walkways?

New South Wales government, launched nine new mid-rise apartment model book designs that he hopes will support the construction of 112,000 homes in the “missing middle” region over the next five years through controversial low- and mid-rise (LMR) reforms.

_{Sign up: AÜ Breaking News email}

designsIt was among the winners of the government’s pattern book design competition after drawings of eight low-rise houses were published in July.

Mid-rise apartment designs announced Monday range from three to six stories, including four designs for small lots, three designs for large lots and two designs for corner lots.

Cross-ventilation and energy-saving pattern designs from Australia and New Zealand’s leading architectural firms will be available for $1,500 for small lots and $2,500 for large lots for the first six months. This is about 1% of the typical cost of an architect’s plan. After six months the cost will increase to approximately 10%.

Sydney has a history of using pattern book designs from Georgian terraces built by early colonial settlers to speed construction. On Monday, NSW planning minister Paul Scully acknowledged the city’s history of mid-rise housing, including “much loved” art deco and red brick apartment blocks.

Redevelopment in Sydney is seeing the deletion of some of these older designs, including in the inner west.

Scully said “there will of course be evolution and change in our cities,” but pattern designs have allowed more homes to be built “to the size and scale that people like to see.”

Mid-rise designs require a development application to be submitted to local councils, but the government says it is providing councils with guidance to help them halve the average assessment time.

The government says new planning reforms passed by parliament this month will provide a “faster and simpler” path into the new year.

Scully said the low-rise designs were “very popular” and 17,000 were purchased for $1.

It was unclear how much of that was genuine interest, but Scully said offers were starting to come through the planning system. Larger, mid-rise pattern designs will take longer to supply, he said.

NSW government architect Abbie Galvin said the patterns were designed to fit permitted areas and 85% of them were 20 meters or less wide.

“This also means there will be no larger developments that take a long time to deliver,” he said.

NSW premier Chris Minns said the designs would help respond to a recent report by the NSW Productivity Commission finding that young people were leaving the city in significant numbers.

“We lost 45,000 young people across states last year,” he said Monday.

“A lot of people in Sydney have said: ‘Look, we’re open to the idea of ​​apartments and units in our suburb, but I don’t want it to be like some of the examples we’ve seen before.’

“The onus is on us builders and architects to design buildings that will stand the test of time, be beautiful to look at, great to live in and, of course, serve the most pressing needs.”