This studio examined the Better Apartments Design Standards and asked whether they remain fit for contemporary models of living. Since their introduction in 2017, the standards have shaped multi-residential design in Victoria, but changing household structures, affordability pressures, and new patterns of urban life raise questions about what apartment design can and should provide.

Students investigated how current rules support, limit, or fail emerging residents, including first home buyers, sharehouses, blended families, and multi-generational households. Through research, precedent analysis, and design testing, the studio unpacked the components of apartment planning and pushed them to their limits, asking what is “good,” what is “bad,” and what might be productively reimagined.

Projects proposed mixed-use residential developments combining apartments, community housing, and hospitality programs. Students selected from sites adjacent to prominent live music venues in Brunswick or Richmond, negotiating the dynamic conditions of railway corridors, nightlife, commercial activity, education, and public infrastructure.

The studio explored how housing can respond to urban intensity, social diversity, and the cultural life of the city, while challenging conventional assumptions about apartment standards, amenity, and collective living.

Studio leader: Wendy Li and Mark McQuilten, Six Degrees Architects