More than a dozen architecture firms from across Australia and overseas will bid to design homes for five Sydney sites earmarked by the New South Wales government to help tackle the state’s housing crisis.
The 15 winners of the government’s model book design competition were announced Monday, culled from portfolios and expressions of interest from more than 200 applicants.
Although pattern books have been routinely used to build public housing since colonial times, this is the first time the NSW government, rather than private enterprise, has been the instigator. The idea behind the construction model book is to speed up construction by approving selected designs, thereby cutting red tape and lengthy development programs.
After submitting site-specific designs in October, five winners will be selected to build low- and medium-rise designs at five capital sites, only one of which has been revealed so far – Sydney Olympic Park. Two areas are intended for new terraced houses and three areas for low- and medium-rise apartments.
The projects are delivered in partnership with the government’s social housing arm, Housing NSW, its affordable housing arm, Landcom and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority.
Although these five projects will not be fast-tracked through approvals, it is expected that the winning designs will be publicly available and immediate benefits attached at some point next year.
According to data provided by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, the average DA local assessment time in NSW has increased from 83 days in 2021-22 to 106 days in 2022-23. The 10 councils with the longest average assessment periods in 2022-23 ranged from 172 to 281 days.
NSW Government Architect Acting Chief Executive, Paulo Macchia, said criteria of “survivability, buildability, repeatability, cost effectiveness and sustainability” were all taken into account by the jury.
“We need them to be cost-sensitive, but that doesn’t mean they’re going to be all ‘A capital’ available, as they would be if they were run by a public housing provider,” he said.
“But we want them to be ‘slightly’ affordable – reasonable in terms of the costs they incur.”
Designs must also be what Macchia described as “work blind.”
“This means that when you look at housing, whether it is an apartment building or a terraced house, it should be suitable for everyone and not have any stigma associated with it,” he said.
“You can’t say it’s a market, accessible or social, because it’s adapted to the character of our streets.”
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The call for entries for the model book competition attracted architectural firms from around the world. Three international companies – one from London, one from New Zealand and one multinational company operating in Germany, Italy, India and Sydney – are among the winners of the competition. The remaining 12 are located in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia.
Six other student teams from the University of Melbourne, University of Sydney and Western Sydney University were also named finalists, although their designs were not eligible to compete for a place among the five teams selected to make their final designs.
A statement from NSW Minister for Planning and Public Places Paul Scully said the student teams had been invited “to ensure young people have a say in the future face of their city”.
The winning designs, judged by a five-person competition jury chaired by NSW Government Architect Abby Galvin, will be announced in November.
The final winners in the professional category are:
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