Too many of Victoria’s apartments are Dickensian: small, dark, poorly insulated and badly built. What went wrong?
All this means Victoria needs more apartments, townhouses and units, and people will need to live in them through their life cycles – when they are young, when they have families and in old age.Research by the Grattan Institute shows that Victorians, particularly younger people, are open to this idea – trading smaller living spaces for proximity to services and a short commute – and already more than 250,000 Victorians live in apartments.
“They asked me if I was kidding,” Wynne said. “The discussion took about 30 seconds after that.” Andrews and his cabinet agreed, for the first time, to impose minimum requirements on apartments – what became known as the Better Apartment Design Standards. A lack of light is associated with depression and having windows on only one wall also meant no through breeze, so air conditioners or heaters were constantly on.
In 2021, the standards were updated, mandating more communal space and green space such as courtyards. Developers were required to increase natural light and consider how to avoid wind tunnels at street level. There was a requirement for “deep soil” to encourage canopy trees.A proposal in the 2016 draft standards for a minimum ceiling height of 2.7 metres was knocked back to 2.4 metres , reducing the quantity of light that enters the room.
VCAT often has the final say – a process that Fergus says has led to some dreadful outcomes, including often doubling the recommended height limit. In Sydney, developers can negotiate at the margins but only if they offer significant public good such as a community arts space or a public lane or plaza.
NSW’s standard, SEPP 65, also has requirements for building separation and the use of a registered architect on complex projects and large developments. In Victoria, 95 per cent of buildings for housing, including apartments, do not involve an architect.Minimum daylight standards are mandated in NSW and WA.Requirements for building separation are mandated in NSW and WA.
The parliamentary committee also called for guaranteed access to quality of air, ventilation and a “clear and quantifiable definition of adequate daylight”. “It’s quite comforting,” said Manuel Der Hagopian, a Swiss architect who has also worked extensively in Asia, “that you may have someone to help you, or kids’ neighbourhood friends to play with and socialise.”
“We are constantly reviewing planning rules and looking at ways we can improve design standards to maintain Victoria’s liveability,” she said. A submission by the Urban Design Forum Australia, a group of designers, architects and planners, said in Victoria it was also “entirely possible to arrange as many as 30 apartments off a single lift lobby and corridor, creating an environment more akin to a hotel corridor than a space to foster meaningful social interaction”.
They want to move. Emma said the ideal place would be a house with a yard. However, in return for a good location they would happily live in another apartment, but only if it had a third bedroom and good storage .“We spend a lot of time on Domain looking to see what’s coming up, but the minute you change the search criteria from two bedroom to three bedroom, there are very few,” Emma said.
This, Andrews said, was leading to small, mean kitchens. Without room to store, prepare and cook food or sit down for a meal, people spend more money on food and their diet suffers, as does the education of children in cooking and eating home-cooked food.
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