‘Beautiful to look at and wonderful to live in’: new pattern designs could be the next art deco or red brick classics

Airy Scandinavian interiors, shaded balconies, light-filled courtyards – could these be Sydney’s next art deco apartment blocks or red-brick walk-ups?

The New South Wales government has done so launched nine new ones pattern book designs for mid-rise apartments, which it hopes will support the construction of 112,000 homes in the ‘missing middle’ over the next five years, through the controversial Low and Mid-Rise Reforms (LMR).

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The designsone of the winners of the government’s pattern book design competition, comes after the publication of eight low-rise house drawings in July.

The mid-rise apartment designs unveiled Monday range from three to six stories, including four small lot designs, three large lot designs and two corner lot designs.

The cross-ventilated and energy efficient pattern designs from leading Australian and New Zealand architectural firms can be purchased for $1,500 for smaller lots up to $2,500 for large lots for the first six months. That’s about 1% of the typical cost of an architect’s plan. After six months the costs will increase to approximately 10%.

Sydney has a history of using pattern book designs to speed construction, from the Georgian terraces built by early colonial settlers. On Monday, NSW Planning Minister Paul Scully acknowledged the city’s history of mid-rise housing, including its “much loved” art deco and red brick apartment buildings.

Redevelopment in Sydney is erasing some of these older designs, including inland.

Scully said there would be ‘evolution and change in our cities as a matter of course’, but pattern designs could allow more houses to be built ‘in a sympathetic way of the size and scale that people want to see’.

The mid-rise designs require a development application to be submitted to local councils, but the government says it has issued guidance to councils that will help them halve the average assessment time.

The government says new planning reforms passed by parliament this month will enable “an even faster and simpler” journey in the new year.

Scully said the low-rise designs were “highly sought after,” and 17,000 had been purchased for $1.

It was unclear how much of this was genuine interest, but Scully said proposals were starting to come through the planning system. He said the larger, mid-height cartridge designs would take longer to deliver.

NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin said the patterns were designed for permitted locations, 85% of which are 20 meters or less wide.

“That also means that there should be no larger developments that take a lot of time,” she says.

NSW Premier Chris Minns said the designs would help respond to a recent report from the NSW Productivity Commission, which found young people were leaving the city in large numbers.

“Last year we lost 45,000 young people on the highway,” he said Monday.

“A lot of people in Sydney said, ‘Look, we’re open to the idea of ​​apartments and units in our suburb, but I don’t want it to look like the examples we’ve already seen’.

“It is up to us, builders and architects, to design buildings that will stand the test of time, are beautiful to look at, great to live in and, of course, meet the most urgent needs.”