More than a dozen architecture firms from across Australia and overseas will compete to design homes for five Sydney sites earmarked by the New South Wales Government to help ease the state’s housing crisis.
The 15 finalists for the government’s pattern book design competition were announced on Monday, selected from portfolios and expressions of interest of more than 200 entries.
Although pattern books for mass housing have been used from time to time since colonial times, this is the first time the NSW government has been the initiator rather than a private company. The idea of ​​the construction pattern book is to ensure rapid construction by prior approval of selected plans, thereby reducing red tape and lengthy development programs.
Following the submission of site-specific plans in October, five winners will be selected to build low- and mid-rise projects in five metropolitan locations, only one of which has been revealed so far – Sydney Olympic Park. Two locations are planned for new terraced constructions and three locations for low- and medium-rise apartments.
The projects will be delivered in partnership with the government’s social housing unit, Housing NSW, its affordable housing arm, Landcom, and the Sydney Olympic Park Authority.
Although these five projects will not be fast-tracked with the approvals themselves, the winning designs are expected to be publicly available and fast-track benefits attached at some point next year.
According to the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure, the average local DA 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 times in 2022-2023 took between 172 and 281 days.
NSW Government Architect Acting Chief Executive Paulo Macchia said the judging panel considered criteria of “livability, buildability, repeatability, cost-effectiveness and sustainability”.
“We need them to be cost-sensitive, but that doesn’t mean they’re all going to be affordable for ‘capital A’ like they would be if they were run by a community housing provider,” he said.
“But we want them to be ‘slightly’ affordable – reasonable for the cost they carry.”
The designs must also be what Macchia described as a “dead end.”
“This means that housing, whether it is a flat or a terraced house, should be suitable for everyone and should not be stigmatised,” he said.
“You won’t be able to tell if it’s marketable, affordable or social because it’s designed to fit the character of our streets.”
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The call for participation in the pattern book competition attracted architectural firms from all over the world. Three international companies – one from London, one from New Zealand and one multinational operating in Germany, Italy, India and Sydney – are among the finalists. The remaining 12 are based in NSW, Victoria and Western Australia.
A further six student teams from the University of Melbourne, the University of Sydney and the University of Western Sydney have also been named as finalists, although their designs will not be eligible to compete for a place among the five chosen to produce their final designs.
A statement from NSW Planning and Public Spaces Minister Paul Scully said the student teams were invited to participate “to ensure young people contribute to the future look of their city”.
The winning designs, judged by a five-member competition panel chaired by NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin, will be announced in November.
The shortlisted finalists in the professional category are:
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