Infill Housing Design Research: For the Better Apartments Design Competition

This design research report provides background information to support Government decisions about the Future Homes competition structure and the spatial parameters for the design brief. The research shows that high-quality, low-rise apartments are a gap in the current housing market. The Future Homes design competition is an ideal vehicle for addressing this gap, and an opportunity to set quality benchmarks for diverse, affordable and sustainable living options in the middle suburbs. The speculative growth scenarios demonstrate the importance of small-scale infill in the middle suburbs for an integrated approach to future housing supply. By harnessing the speed and location of redevelopment in these contexts, a suite of housing solutions can be delivered over time. Fostering innovative design explorations in the first stage of the competition would enable the Better Apartment Design Guidelines to be tested in middle suburban residential contexts, extending the application of the new standards. The site-scale design tests demonstrate that, three key planning levers would be needed to optimise the quality of redevelopment outcomes, while meeting housing demand: street setbacks, parking provisions and design-ledresponses to overlooking.