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Welcome to the first Urbis design insights newsletter. We are delighted to share our insights with you and in this edition will be focusing on the Residential marketplace and the design challenges and trends we are observing across our national practice.
Uncertainty in the housing market, mixed performance of developments across Australia and a slow easing of access to capital make for interesting times and, in fact, have led to a much more diverse residential product offering for Australians. Small lots and ‘inner ring’ apartments continue to be the dominant trend but more traditional housing types still make up the vast majority of available new housing. It is the context and setting of these new ‘communities’ that is the most fertile ground for innovation. Amenity, infrastructure, access to employment, affordability and distinctive design underpin the best performing projects.
The intent of this newsletter is to briefly showcase a number of key insights in relation to the residential markets in which we operate. We would be delighted to discuss with you these observations and how they may be leveraged to improve the performance of your project.
James Tuma
National Director
Design
Residential projects vary greatly in scale, type, pace and value across the regions. There is however a number of common success factors and emerging trends that form patterns across the sector. This is not to say that every project has the same challenges and opportunities, far from it. Rather, it suggests a number of key design factors that should be considered and balanced as each project takes shape. Our observations from clients across the sector are:
Our work in creating a health themed community around the emerging Sunshine Coast University Hospital is an example of how an essentially residential project can leverage the benefits of public sector investment and create a range of allied functions that bring a community together under a common theme.
Greenfield communities continue to be a highly competitive market place, and as form of development, have over the last 5 years undergone the most radical transformation in the residential sector. A focus on providing real value and doing ‘more with less’ characterises our new more intense and amenity rich greenfield developments. An increase in housing choice and lot size, the need to maximize the value of typically high infrastructure charges, and a return to providing local and neighbourhood scale facilities demonstrate an overall desire in the industry to create real places rather than just housing.
At more than 2,300ha, Caloundra South is the largest master planned community ever conceived by Stockland and presently the largest greenfield community creation exercise in Australia.
With capacity to accommodate 50,000 people and generate up to 20,000 jobs, this project has the potential to house one third of the population growth of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast over the next 20 to 30 years.
Urbis is proud to have partnered with Stockland in the Economic Analysis, Planning and Urban Design of the Caloundra South Town Centre and Business and Enterprise Precincts. With more than 90,000m2 of Retail, and more than 130ha of enterprise area, in addition to 8 primary schools, four secondary schools, Tafe and Tertiary learning facilities, Caloundra South is uniquely positioned to set new standards for mixed use development in Australia, and attract global opportunities to the Sunshine Coast.
In line with the ongoing trend toward amenity driven development and density, the key design element of the project is a “central park” that integrates the existing low lying landform as a continuous natural drainage channel, with environmental enhancements, within multi-use recreation and sporting areas for the community.
Urbis were engaged to provide a landscape master plan for the Dalestone residential community development. In addition to typical sporting and recreational opportunities generously accommodated in this proposal, consideration was given to sustainable local food production as a design opportunity through edible planting in the form of fruiting park or street trees and community gardens.
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Planning frameworks and urban policy across the country are continuing to emphasise urban infill and apartment development as one key measure in delivering urban sustainability. This trend, from a design perspective, places emphasis on the creation of truly integrated, high intensity, urban precincts that offer unique lifestyle opportunities for residents. An active and high quality public realm that gives a strong sense of the development being integrated into the wider urban area is a distinct shift from the idea of creating exclusive enclaves. This sense of connectivity to a place and to people is also bourne out in other observed trends around ensuring proximity to transport, access to common area roof terraces, and strong landscape theming.
Urbis has been involved in the planning and landscape design elements of this significant urban infill development. Comprising five unique towers in a designated renewal area of Brisbane, Remora road exemplifies a number of national trends by offering a seamless ground plane that links to adjacent parks and facilities, high levels of amenity through the provision common facilities, and a clear focus on high quality landscapes as a feature that expresses the quality of the project.
This 5650sqm parcel is one of two strategic sites in the core of Sydney’s Fairfield Town Centre core, identified for a site specific DCP. The site, formerly Fairfield Council Chambers, contains existing retail and commercial uses, 100 metres walking distance to the train station and bus interchange. The building owners approached Urbis to manage and deliver the design process through to Development Application approval. Urbis investigated development options whereby the existing commercial tower was to be retained and the existing retail and car parking podium to be redeveloped to accommodate ground floor retail, three levels of podium car-parking and two residential towers of 12 and 16 storeys respectively.
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Apartments now make up over half of the residential market in Australia and are predicted to continue to grow this share. Australians are growing slowly accustomed to the concept of apartment living, although in doing so, are clearly choosing developments with a number of common design qualities.
The design for the Hollywood Apartments landscape aims to provide a high amenity living canvas in which the building emerges, anchored by the upgraded streetscape at ground level and the residential communal open space on podium level. The underlying principle from which the landscape concept has been developed is to provide a high quality residential amenity to the “Sky Garden” to help facilitate a strong sense of ownership and community.
The Truganina Precinct Structure Plan Area is located within the Melbourne West Growth Corridor Plan. Urbis was engaged to undertake feasibility options for a transit-orientated town centre. The preferred option was composed of a town centre typology with a variety of two and three storey built form with retail ground floor uses which are augmented with upper storey office and residential uses.
The residential typology surrounding the town centre and rail station should attract higher density built form given the integration of multiple high-valued and desirable amenities (transport, shopping, and recreation/open space system). They should be characterised by high to medium density development of urban apartments 3-7 storey and multifamily flat building with a minimum of 50 dw/ha within 400 metres of the station and 1-3 storey terrace home and narrow lot subdivision with a minimum of 30dw/ha within 800 metres of the station.
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Environmental performance, approval processes, operational costs, and marketing benefits have driven a wide (although mixed) response to the use of sustainability rating tools in the residential sector. Internationally there several bench mark tools and Australia now has two of these in the UDIA’s enviro development tool and the GBCA’s Green Star Communities rating tool.
The Green Star – Communities PILOT rating tool was released on 14 June 2012 as an independent, national, voluntary rating tool to drive the development of more sustainable, productive and liveable Australian communities. The rating tool has been developed by the GBCA in close collaboration with the market, including all three tiers of government, public and private sector developers, professional services providers, academia, product manufacturers and suppliers and other industry stakeholder groups. Green Star – Communities rating tool contains 38 credits across five sustainability categories (plus innovation) for the planning, design and delivery of sustainable communities.
The GBCA is interested in working closely with a limited number of community development projects to further test the pilot version of the rating tool. The expression of interest period is now open and you are encouraged to express an interest using the Green Star – Communities PILOT Expression of Interest Form.
Lend Lease’s Barangaroo South project, part of the $6 billion Barangaroo urban regeneration development on Sydney Harbour, has been accepted as a pilot project for the newly-released Green Star – Communities PILOT rating tool. According to the GBCA’s Chief Executive, Romilly Madew, Lend Lease has a long history as a market leader in sustainability, and was an early adopter of the Green Star rating tools for buildings.
EnviroDevelopment is a scientifically-based branding system designed to make it easier for purchasers to recognise and, thereby, select more environmentally sustainable developments and lifestyles. Developers who achieve the standards and submit their applications for certification will be eligible to be recognised as EnviroDevelopments on the basis of the specific areas in which they have met the requirements. EnviroDevelopment has been acknowledged by independent studies as a valuable and credible tool for communicating the sustainability credentials of a development providing home buyers, tenants and government agencies with a standardised approach to measurement. Certified EnviroDevelopments use the EnviroDevelopment branding on development collateral including sales and marketing brochures, advertisements, billboards, interpretative signage, development website and banners.
EnviroDevelopment conducted a survey in early 2013 covering the following topics; ‘Certification and Process’, ‘Marketing and Consumers’ and’ Value’. The survey targeted projects that have received EnviroDevelopment certification, to better understand the strategic direction of the tool and where improvements can be made.
Alkimos Beach is one of the largest and most significant urban developments in Perth’s north-west corridor. With a stated vision of ‘creating a master-planned coastal community of global significance that’s moving towards carbon-neutral living’, Alkimos Beach aspires to demonstrate national and international leadership in sustainability.
Providing 2,413 lots within the 224 hectare site, the value of the natural environment present at Alkimos Beach has underpinned the design, delivery and operation of the community. Retention of existing key landscape features has been a major driver in the design of the development, involving the retention of coastal dunes, creating landscape corridors connecting the urban areas with the coast and retained open spaces.
LandCorp and Lend Lease have emphasised the importance of consumer education through the development of a behavioral change program. The program has been designed to support changes in household behaviour and to compliment the initiatives in place within Alkimos Beach to reduce impact in the areas of energy, water, waste and travel. The behavioral change program targets individual household engagement as well as broader community engagement. An innovative website tool additionally provides potential buyers with understanding of the cost of living savings that can be attributed to the inclusion of energy reduction initiatives.
Displaying LandCorp and Lend Lease’s holistic vision of sustainability, Alkimos Beach was certified in December 2012 under all six elements of EnviroDevelopment – Ecosystems, Waste, Energy, Materials, Water and Community. This becomes Western Australia’s first project to achieve all six elements.
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Despite Australia being recognized as holding the largest average house sizes, the GFC and challenging market conditions of the past decade have stimulated perhaps the most significant innovations in dwelling design and new community urban design since the mid-20th Century.
Increasingly new community customers are recognizing the health and wellbeing benefits of living in more compact communities offering greater access to local amenities – (education, health, retail, open space), and the improved health and wellbeing of a community which encourages a healthy and active lifestyle. Investors also are seeing the positive benefits of the loss cost of entry for well positioned freehold product.
House designs are reflecting a more urban character in homage to apartment design and the clever use of space. New small lot and multi residential freehold dwellings often in attached formats are expanding the available typology of housing in Australia, and directly contributing to more compact and sustainable communities.
As lot sizes reduce, private open space is becoming more intimate and taking on a greater level of expression and personalization by the home owner. Open space, as the stage for the public life of the community needs to work harder to offer a greater range of community functions and environmental services.
MODE is an affordable ‘Compact Urban Village’ developed in Queensland by Stockland at North Lakes within 500m of the Town Centre heart.
With 145 homes on less than 8ha of developable land, an average lot size of 270sqm, this village sets a new benchmark for affordable freehold home ownership north of Brisbane, and was recognized in 2012 by the UDIA as a finalist in the Qld State Awards. This village sits within the context of the 1,000 ha North Lakes project which will ultimately house over 20,000 people and offer 13,000 jobs.
Urbis is proud to be associated with North Lakes, with team members instrumental in the business planning, product insights and urban design of this ‘break through’ residential village for Stockland. Against a backdrop of falling enquiry and difficult market conditions, MODE unlocked exceptional customer enquiry, continues to deliver strong sales and above average levels of owner occupied dwellings.
This project demonstrates the Urbis ethos of market led design innovation to deliver engaging community outcomes.
Urbis works across the country with the best residential developers in the market. Our integrated and flat operational structure allows our designers to collaborate with our property advisory professionals, economists, planners, and researchers to deliver truly insightful advice and inspired design solutions. This allows us to offer that rare combination of deliverable development in combination with design quality and innovation.
Some of our other recent commissions in the residential sector have included:
