Urban Research Studio

We would like to acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora, as the traditional owners of the land upon which the Waterloo Housing Estate is built and pay my respect to the Elders past and present. May their wisdom and knowledge inform the future of this land.

We would like to thank the Waterloo Public Housing Actions Group (WPHAG) and particularly Richard Wicks, Eddie Ma, Chris Brown and the Matavai and Turaranga Tower residents for their time, generosity and wisdom and for welcoming us to their homes.

Tower Power – Transforming Urban Housing for a Green New Future

The unprecedented events of recent months – drought, fire, epidemics – have put a keen spotlight on our relationship with the planet and with each other. Against this background, the studio brief challenges students to invent fresh approaches to urban development by querying how the City of Sydney’s existing housing stock can be reconceptualised to contribute to the provision of sustainable housing. It challenges students to devise architectural propositions that support the Green New Deal^[1] by advancing ­­a triple bottom-line approach based on environmental, social and economic sustainability for a more resilient urban future­­. Not least, the brief poses the broader question of how the discipline of architecture can make a positive impact on people’s lives by improving their homes, neighbourhoods and the environment. The project site is the Waterloo Housing Estate in Redfern that has been earmarked for redevelopment. Yet how to best go about this is subject of a heated debate with competing visions for its future proposed by the NSW state government,[2] the City of Sydney,[3] resident groups and other stakeholders.[4] What is at stake is to come up with an innovative model for housing redevelopment that offers a convincing alternative to demolition and sets new standards for the future of urban housing.[5] The project will focus on transforming the two slim towers that the City of Sydney’s alternative proposal seeks to retain – Matavai and Turanga.

Read the full project brief.

Guest Critics

Student Works

Andy Chen – Nikita Chaudhary – Chris Koustoubardis

Deconstructed Parts, Reconstructed Whole

Mackenzie Nix – Caitlin Roseby – Jarrod Van Veen

Be Seen, Be Safe, Be Inspired

Kirrili Zimmer – Becky Gordon – Liam Brandwood

Waterloo Place

Caitlin Condon – Sophie Corr – Max Jefferys

Habitat 1 Hundred

Kiara Carroll – Catherine Bauer – Veronica Vela Vela Morales

Waterloo Place

Brennan Clody – Owen Olthof – Hugh Roberts

Inside Out Transformation

Dennis Pas – Tammy Tanakulthon – Bora Kim

https://youtu.be/MjoKdPTcglQ

The Paths We Colour

Joyeeta Iqbal – Natalie Dungey

Tower Power

Elsa Feng – Rainee Wu – Samantha Yau

Reinventing Living

Yishan Lu – Aayushi Gajjar – Wing Kiu Lau

Precinct 1

Spiros Spyrou – Michelle Lee – Rebekah Chew

Waterloo Co-Housing Estate

Charles Cummins – Rosemarie Gray – Rohan Downs

The Gallery of Events

Jia Ning – Rojin Keshavarzi – Ladan Zolfaghari

Unity & Urbanism

Sweta Susan Mathew – Samvit Bhanot – Shehzad Jeevaji

Project Brief

Background

Apartment buildings have become the standard solution for urban living and represent a fast-growing part of the Australian housing stock with an increase of 78% over the past 25 years, and more than 2,2 million apartment residents.[6]  Rolled out en mass across Australian cities between from the 1950s onward, many of these buildings are now in need for modernisation. There are many reasons why these buildings no longer meet current needs and aspirations: SOCIAL Changes in the sociodemographic profile brought about by ageing residents, residents with increasingly diverse socio-economic and cultural backgrounds and new forms of habitation (e.g. flat-shares, multi-generational living etc.) represent frequently incompatible needs, which contribute to making existing apartment buildings unsuitable. ENVIRONMENTAL: Outmoded or ill-maintained buildings that do not meet current standards in terms of design quality[7] and environmental performance[8] create unpleasant living conditions, boost energy costs for heating/cooling/lighting and contribute to Green House Gas production. ECONOMIC The value of the land that the buildings have been built on and planning regulations that promote higher density means that the market price of what could be built can be higher than that of the current buildings, making them economically obsolete. Economic issues include affordability, adaptability, and low maintenance and operating costs.

Transforming Urban Housing for a New Green Future

Until recently, the value of outmoded existing housing stock was seen in its potential for demolition and rebuilding. However, this is not always environmentally and socially sustainable, nor economically feasible.[9] During the past decades, architects have demonstrated that existing housing is not a burden but a valuable resource that can be adapted, transformed and expanded upon to create entirely new developments.  These transformative redesign approaches are part of a new pragmatism in architecture, that saw numerous post-war housing schemes redeveloped rather than demolished whilst delivering economic, environmental and social benefits.  Lacaton & Vassal’s transformation of apartment towers in France (Tour Bois le Prêtre, Saint Nazaire)  delivered quality contemporary housing at a fraction of the cost associated with demolish & rebuild.  ERA Architects successfully redeveloped urban housing schemes, working with the City and universities as part of the Toronto Tower Renewal Scheme. Biq Architects have contributed to the incremental redevelopment of the Omoord neighbourhood in Rotterdam by putting social demographics at the centre of their housing block redesign proposal.[10] And in Frankfurt, Stefan Forster ‘post-densified’ medium density housing developments by adding additional floors, bridging between buildings and adding new blocks into underutilized open space. These approaches suggest a fundamentally transformed idea of what constitutes ‘urban development’- it no longer necessarily refers to replacing old buildings with new ones, but is a mixed mode, incremental approach that seeks no universal solution, but one that is right for the specific building and neighbourhood. It understands all existing buildings and spaces as a material resource than can be upcycled, transformed and added to ad infinitum. In practical terms, transforming urban housing can mean adding on top, to the perimeter, to the base and underground; re-organising spaces (fusing, dividing, etc.); reprogramming spaces; filling underutilised open space between buildings; and other strategies.

The brief asks you to translate and further develop these ideas in the context of the Waterloo Housing Estate in Redfern, focusing on the two slim towers that the City of Sydney’s alternative proposal[11] seeks to retain – Matavai and Turanga. These are in precinct 1 and are framed by two elongated slab buildings – Marton and Solander. The working scenario is that precinct 1 is the first phase of redevelopment and we presume that the slab buildings are retained in their current form at this stage.  The prominent tower schemes, once transformed, can become powerful symbols for a transformative architecture that supports the green new deal through triple bottom line approaches – power towers. Whilst there are multiple guidelines and policies for new housing, the transformation of existing social housing is unchartered territory in Sydney and the proposed design projects must be seen as prototypes for new concepts and ideas. Two of the biggest challenges are to increase density without negatively impacting on the liveability and urban character and to renew existing housing through the creation of new private housing whilst maintaining a viable social mix.[12] The proposals by the NSW state government[13] and the City of Sydney[14] highlight and diverge on these issues.

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[1] The Green New Deal is a US congressional resolution that lays out a grand plan for tackling climate change. The goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to avoid the most damaging consequences of climate change while at the same time trying to address social problems including economic inequality and racial injustice.

[2] See https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-your-area/State-Significant-Precincts/Waterloo/Waterloo-Estate

[3] See https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision/changing-urban-precincts/waterloo-precinct

[4] Geoff Turnbull “Who’s Who in Waterloo – April 7, 2017” The South Sydney Herald (7 April 2017) https://southsydneyherald.com.au/%EF%BB%BF-whos-who-in-waterloo-7-april-2017/

[5] Löschke, Sandra Karina, and Hazel Easthope. “Postproduced: How Adaptive Redesign and Participatory Approaches Can Transform Ageing Housing.” In From Conflict to Inclusion in Housing: Interaction of Communities, Residents and Activists, edited by Giorgos Artopoulos Graham Cains, Kirsten Day, 71-86. London: UCL Press, 2017.

[6] The census shows 1,214,360 apartments in Australia, 50% of these in NSW. In the EU, 43% of its 512 mio inhabitants live in apartments. “2071.0 – Census of Population and Housing: Reflecting Australia – Stories from the Census, 2016,” 26/09/2017, Australian Bureau of Statistics. EU reference missing

[7] In NSW, the introduction of State Environmental Planning Policy No 65— Design Quality of Residential Flat Development has introduced significant improvements.

[8] Notable are the City of Sydney’s recent introduction of Residential Apartments Sustainability Plan for existing and new buildings and a new a government program that provides operational performance ratings:  NABERS (National Australian Built Environment Rating System) for apartment buildings.

[9] Laurence Troy, et al. (2017). ‘It depends what you mean by the term rights’: strata termination and housing rights. Housing Studies, 32, 1-16. 

[10] See  McLachlan, James. “Exemplary Housing Estate Regeneration in Europe.” AJ The Architects’ Journal  (1 July 2015) and HVDHA architects website: https://hvdha.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/HvdHA_knikkers_lores.pdf (note: in Dutch language)

[11] See City of Sydney website: https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision/changing-urban-precincts/waterloo-precinct

[12] See https://www.ahuri.edu.au/policy/ahuri-briefs/public-housing-renewal-and-social-mix and particularly the references listed at the end of the AHURI brief.

[13] See https://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Plans-for-your-area/State-Significant-Precincts/Waterloo/Waterloo-Estate

[14] See https://www.cityofsydney.nsw.gov.au/vision/changing-urban-precincts/waterloo-precinct