High-rise housing gets a pretty bad press in Australia. It’s frequently criticised for over-shadowing, generating high-speed winds, and destroying streetscapes and views. Skyscrapers have high life-cycle emissions compared to medium density housing and in some instances are associated with mental illness and socially dysfunctional behaviours. But it gets worse – some observers reckon it’s an [...]
April 17, 2012 – 10:24 am
The Fairfax press reported yesterday the Victorian Government is considering a proposal to abolish the mandatory 6 star energy rating for new houses and renovations, and replace it with a voluntary industry code. This morning however, The Age reports the Premier, Ted Baillieu, has done an about-face and ruled out any change. If the Government really [...]
Slate columnist Matt Yglesias posted an important article yesterday, In defence of the sun belt, that should be required reading for all politicians and policy-makers who’re interested in making Australian cities better. It reinforces how important it is to find ways to increase the supply of housing within our cities, especially in sought-after established areas. [...]
February 13, 2012 – 7:14 pm
The first exhibit shows a rendering of the joint Cornell University-Technion-Israel Institute of Technology graduate school of applied sciences proposed to replace a hospital on New York’s Roosevelt Island (click on the image and it’ll take you to a video). This tiny island is administratively part of Manhattan and situated in the East River opposite Queens. It [...]
By Alan Davies
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Also posted in Architecture & buildings, Planning
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Tagged Chiogga, Cornell, development, Griffith, Ile Saint-Louis, La Trobe, Murdoch, Rhoda Island, Roosevelt Island, Technion, university
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December 5, 2011 – 6:35 pm
I’ve argued before (here, here and here) that new housing supply within Melbourne’s established suburbs is excessively dependent on small-scale infill housing projects. In the expansive middle ring suburbs, around half of all housing projects provide only one or two additional dwellings, with the great majority providing only one. It’s therefore important to look at [...]
November 23, 2011 – 7:40 pm
We need to start thinking about new ways of increasing housing supply in the established suburbs. As I’ve noted a number of times now, activity centres aren’t delivering much and infill housing, though it’s putting in a sterling effort, is probably at full stretch. These strategies are still important, but additional sources of supply are [...]
November 22, 2011 – 7:31 pm
We know that the inability to increase significantly the supply of dwellings within established suburbs is a key failing of strategic planning in Melbourne. Simply put, there’s not enough housing to make established suburbs affordable for all the people who would like to live in a relatively accessible location. We also know that activity centres [...]
November 21, 2011 – 7:22 pm
Pending completion of the Government’s new urban strategy for Melbourne, the two major strategic planning documents that jointly guide the metropolitan area’s development – Melbourne 2030 and Melbourne @ 5 Million – are rich with rhetoric about the importance of directing development to established suburbs rather than the periphery. They also emphasise the desirability of [...]
November 17, 2011 – 11:58 pm
Despite an enormous increase in house prices over the last ten years, real estate commissions stayed relatively constant as a percentage of selling price. Agents consequently enjoyed a spectacular increase in the dollars earned on each sale even as the volume of sales was expanding. In its new report, Getting the housing we want, the [...]
November 15, 2011 – 8:31 pm
I have to say right up-front that I’m disappointed by The Grattan Institute’s new report, Getting the housing we want. It nominally proposes ways of increasing housing supply in established suburbs, but it really just puts up the politician’s standard solution – more bureaucracy, more money, and little explanation (press report here). In the Institute’s [...]
