Housing+

Housing+ explores opportunities for enhancing the quality and diversity of affordable housing through mixed-tenure redevelopment. Mixed-tenure projects are intended to improve social mix and increase access to affordable living options by delivering a combination of subsidised, not-for-profit and market-rate housing. In Australia, achieving tenure mix is often limited to the de-concentration of public housing estates or high density redevelopment of valuable inner city sites. This studio investigated potentials for delivering a greater range of affordable housing outcomes in more locations by developing medium density dwelling models that could be replicated across the middle suburbs. Students’ site selections and self-directed project briefs were underpinned by an understanding of the broader social, economic and policy drivers of affordable housing provided by collaborators on the research project, From mixed tenure development to mixed tenure neighbourhoods for the Australian Housing Urban Research Institute. Preliminary design strategies were extracted from a broad examination of building typologies and housing case studies, which were then reassembled and tailored for different users and development contexts in NSW, VIC, QLD and VIC. The range of projects point to ways that affordable housing design can enhance living outcomes for residents, as well as the broader community by ‘giving back’ amenity and infrastructure that supports stakeholder-inputs in the ongoing renewal of the middle suburbs.