“Australian households spend twice as much of income on mortgages than five years ago, report shows”.

The only answer towards flattening the cost of dwellings ownership - highlighted by the graph below - is increased housing diversity; alternatives to houses. www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

Must admit, that I didn’t think this building would eventuate. Promising to see greater use of timber structure as a meaningful strategy towards mitigating carbon emissions. But we’ve got a long way to go towards broad application and anything close to zero in construction.

Replicates the findings of this poll on Xitter a while back.

Ultimo Housing Project, 1989; Perimeter of point access apartments to form a common courtyard, including 2 storey maisonettes - offering great amenity (street & garden outlook, ventilation, etc) + adaptive reuse of existing warehouse building to apartments.

6/X

Walker Street, Waterloo Housing, 1989: A clever hybrid; Each repeating module containing 8 dwellings; 4 x larger 3 storey independently accessed terraces with private gardens (to the rear); and 4 x smaller point access apartments above (accessed via a central stair) with outlook to the street.

5/X

High Street Terrace Housing, 1910: Another interesting and uncommon arrangement. Each ‘Flats’ building contains 2 down / 2 up, with each abutting the next like row housing (ie. terraces). Bottom dwellings independently accessed. Top accessed by a single run common stair shared by only 2.

4/X

Workman’s dwellings, Lower Fort Street, 1910: Interesting arrangement resembling semidetached houses extruded vertically to 3 floor apartment building w/ common open stairs. Configured for boarding rather than as standalone dwellings; explains the open corridor at the rear serving the bedrooms.

3/X

Graph for reference:

Anecdotal as it might be, the poll I ran on Twitter (X) suggests for the same price point people will compromise dwelling type (house) for better located dwelling resembling a townhouse (with garden) in preference to a more centrally located apartment. The key is getting scale / feasibility right.

The #wsusydneyarchitecture ‘Beyond the Horizon’ exhibition earlier this week; a clear expression of the diversity of students and work of Western Sydney. Congratulations to all the students who put this carefully crafted exhibition together, and for their photographs (here).