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Alicia Pozniak of Housing and Planning, The Cabinet Office, NSW Government, with NSW GAO
Housing crises are decades in the making and will take decades to resolve. Across history, many architects have responded with pattern books for housing; however, most have been removed from much site-specific context. This studio speculates on the possibility of recognising existing environmental, cultural and urban patterns across Greater Sydney as the basis for generating new housing models that integrate and create diverse opportunities for living. The focus is on the intensification of land in proximity to existing infrastructure, aligned with recent planning reforms to encourage higher-density housing and reduce carbon footprint. Students work to reconcile patterns of Country obscured by European settlement and subsequent suburban development, using local landscape and culture as starting points for design. These are to shape and inform new sub-patterns for housing that address the needs of local communities and broader marginalised cohorts to improve Sydney’s future urban equality.
The studio engages with Government Architect NSW, who is developing a pattern book for medium-density housing as per a recent state government commitment to increase supply.
