A competition for affordable housing organised by Bee Breeders has received a rather radical solution, which proposes homes to be built above Sydney’s streets.
Conceived by architecture firm NIKA, the proposal seeks to construct a series of bridges over Sydney’s existing roads and build rows of single storeyed homes on these bridges.
The competition entry was submitted by the NIKA team led by vice president of architecture and engineering Tae Jung. The competition sought innovative proposals to address Sydney's lack of affordable housing.
According to NIKA’s proposal, the bridges would be raised 4.2m above the roads to allow traffic to pass underneath unhindered. NIKA sought to reduce the cost of housing by building on unused space with little land value while also minimising disruption to the existing built environment.
According to the proposal, a series of bridges will be built with gaps to allow natural light; each structure could accommodate up to eight homes.
NIKA believes this idea could be replicated in other cities across the world; the firm is already in discussions to develop the proposal for a couple of US cities.
