“‘We can’t afford it’ means ‘We don’t want to do it,’” quipped Richard Denniss, an economist and executive director of the Australia Institute. He was summarizing the political approach to affordable housing in Australia and setting the scene for the Robin Boyd Foundation’s Affordable Housing Matters forum held in Melbourne on 6 October 2023. Inspired by Boyd’s proactive initiative of the Small Homes Service (which sought to offer low-cost, high-quality architectural housing in a time of great need), the forum looked to inspire new solutions and advocate for a coordinated effort across disciplines to address the current housing crisis, which has been spurred on by increasingly expensive housing, record-low rental vacancies and economic pressure. Through the forum’s program of frameworks, data, and built and unbuilt design examples, it was clear that exemplars for better housing solutions rely on an individual or a collective, that sits outside of government, being willing to take a risk – just as Boyd’s collaborative Small Homes Service did.
The rental crisis drove a number of the explorations into affordable housing proposals shared at the forum. Katherine Sundermann from MGS Architects noted that 92 percent of renters aspire to own their own home, but only 49 percent think they ever will. Ryan van den Nouwelant from the City Futures Research Centre at UNSW Sydney, discussed the rental stress that led to people’s decisions to relocate to regional greenfield areas. Jonathan Spear, CEO of Infrastructure Victoria, described the ongoing cycle of doom propelled by the property market and the “Australian dream,” as aspiring homeowners continuing to seek large three- or four-bedroom homes prioritize size over location. This aspiration is driving poorly designed volume-building in greenfield areas and the outer suburbs.
Katherine Sundermann speaking about The Third Way.
Image: Marie Luise Photographer
Suburban sprawl was something Robin Boyd himself was opposed to and then went on to advocate for new medium-density typologies. Today, suburban sprawl is still an ongoing concern for those in the built environment. Jeremy McLeod, director of Breathe, reiterated the problems with sprawl, stating that “large housing equals low occupancy, social isolation and high carbon.” Like Boyd, who advocated for new medium-density typologies, McLeod advocated living bigger by living smaller.
Sundermann presented a conceptual co-housing scheme, developed in collaboration with Alexis Kalagas, Andy Fergus, Tim Riley, Nicola Foxworthy and many more. The scheme offers smaller dwellings but gives back to the city through shared amenity. Titled “The Third Way,” the concept is a non-profit model of build-to-rent housing targeted at a demographic that is ineligible for social housing, but also unable to tap into the expensive private market. It was one of seven proposals shortlisted in the City of Sydney’s 2019 Alternative Housing Ideas Competition. A cooperative scheme is a replicable concept; 20 percent of residents in Zurich live in a co-op development, for example. The appeal of developments like this was emphasized by Michael Lennon, from Regional Housing and Planning, University of South Australia, who indicated that the average time taken to save a deposit today is about 10 years. Clearly, renting is necessary and should be appealing. But, said Sundermann, even with cooperative housing’s economic and social benefits, only 1 percent of Australians live this way. So, what is diminishing its allure? To paraphrase Robin Boyd, is it because the Australian public knows no other way or has seen no better design?
The audience at the Robin Boyd Foundation’s Affordable Housing Matters forum.
Image: Marie Luise Photographer
The importance of agency and inclusivity in the design of social and affordable housing was reiterated throughout the forum. When asked about a key policy that would facilitate their work, a number of speakers – including director of Future Method Studio, Genevieve Zoe Murray, and director of Tripple, Jake Milgrom-Marabel – shared the same answer: inclusionary zoning. This change in planning would mandate or create incentives for a proportion of a residential development to include a number of affordable housing dwellings and perhaps have the potential to retain (or restore) a sense of belonging in a neighbourhood.
Nigel Bertram shared NMBW’s conscious decision not to prejudge spatial living conditions when designing a home, using St Albans Housing as an example. In this project, NMBW walked through an “empty-shell apartment” with future occupants to collaborate with them on the location of rooms and their sizes. The success of this approach, which gave agency to the occupant over the design of their home, was clear through the honest, entertaining quotes that they shared.
A sign of a good conference is that it challenges your thinking or makes you emotive. As a millennial for whom even the “affordable” build-to-rent schemes are out of reach, this forum did exactly that. Throughout the day, common themes of “red tape,” the government’s ambitious plans for housing and the (selfish) NIMBY perspective highlighted Australia’s hesitancy to embrace a new dream and a new way of living – one that benefits people instead of profit. The Affordable Housing Matters Forum collection of built and unbuilt examples demonstrated that solutions exist; I just hope we can get over the “We don’t want to do it” mentality to adopt them soon.
