Building new communities for the future

The buyer profile is now breaking into niche groups ranging from singles, single parent families, couples with no kids or no kids living at home, multiple adults, retirees, ageing adults, university graduates who live at home, and immigrants with diverse cultural values, language and housing needs.

New communities must respond to the needs of these groups by providing a range of housing products, social infrastructure and support, distinctive lifestyle opportunities and amenity features which cater to all ages, abilities, wants and needs.

Delivering only the traditional detached residential product types is not a future-proofed way to design for housing demand. We are starting to see exciting new typologies emerging such as multi-generational homes and dual occupancy products, in addition to the increasing demand for Plexes, Nano and Urban Homes.

House designs can also cater for minor changes such as room additions, reductions or room conversions to allow for changes such as children leaving home, parents moving in, or working from home. This provides longevity and resilience in new communities by allowing people to adapt (or shift close-by), rather than move away. In product diversity, also lies stability.

Projected population growth by age 2011 – 2031 (source: id the population experts 2013)

Integrating smaller, more urban-style lots into the community which require less maintenance and have good access to amenity and community hubs will help bridge the gap between retirement and elderly age.

Lifestyle, adventure and alternative sports have also risen in popularity over the past decades due to people becoming more physically and mentally health conscious. People want walking trails, running tracks with distance markers, commuter and recreational cycleways (reducing car dependency), fitness stations, and multi-use courts and fields and are eager to keep fit and participate within a community environment.

Depending on the market, the focus can be either on larger lots fronting amenity for a higher return per lot, or on smaller dwellings with slightly lesser value, but more yield. Understanding the demographic and target market will give a better indication of how to locate products.

The design outcome of a community cannot be forced. Every site is different, and we must respond to the context and characteristics which make the site unique, and enhance these features through good design. A finished design should have a simplicity to it, and an air of inevitability – like it couldn’t have been designed any other way.

We understand the issues around smaller homes, narrower streets and reduced backyard spaces and are always aware of:

• on-street visitor car parking (narrower lots mean less room for car parking in between driveways)
• privacy for residents
• lack of storage for homes (sometimes residents will park on the street in order to use their garage for storage, creating greater strain on the streetscape)
• the design and building controls of the dwellings to ensure suitable soundproofing, etc.

Historically, amenity benefits from the public realm can be overshadowed by technical requirements that are driven by engineering or Council needs. Streetscape clutter is becoming more of an issue due to the increased density and narrower streetscapes being delivered.

Aspects that need to be considered include street trees, civil services, light poles, visitor car parking, driveways, and water treatment/drainage.

As technology advances and our views about the environment become more sympathetic, new communities are focusing on methods to reduce our footprint and become more self-sustainable, such as:

• food production, urban farming and agriculture
• water harvesting
• generating and storing renewable energy
• solar street lights
• pneumatic waste
• collection systems
• glow in the dark pathways/cycleways (pebble lighting)

Some new cities and communities are being planned with smart infrastructure and sensors built in such as:

• garbage truck alerts when bins are full
• car park space alerts to available locations
• intelligent street lighting
• ‘event detection’ by cameras to notify authorities of an emergency
• garden auto-watering.