Common design language shared upon the facades of both community and private housing is where the similarity ceases. While one is designed, built, and sold for market return, the other is a long-term asset of a not-for-profit entity, shaped by the pillars of practicality, purpose and, of course, community.

As the built environment ponders housing inequity, community housing is fast becoming a proving ground for values as much as it is design. What was once a ‘slept on’ sector now has a pulse, with its shape constantly shifting, put down to the growing moral dimension of our foremost architectural offices.

This is the story of a developer and an architect that understand the sector back-to-front. Despite that knowledge, they say they’ve got much to learn.

Inside City West

City West Housing is a not-for-profit developer that provides permanent dwellings for those on community housing waitlists. Initially established by the NSW Government in 1994, ‘CWH’ is now a private entity, creating purpose-led homes that work for their tenants.

“What we really are is a service provider,” says City West CEO, Leonie King.

“Customer satisfaction is central to our organisation because, at the end of the day, we’re a charity. We’re here to provide services to people in a part of the market that historically hasn’t delivered. Our whole portfolio is essentially a built-to-rent model, it just happens to have an affordable price point because we own whole apartment buildings.

It’s an approach that reframes affordable housing as a service rather than an asset, a distinction that defines City West’s difference from its private-sector counterparts.

“The private sector is involved in affordable housing now, but let’s be frank, they’re not doing it out of altruism. They’re there because they can get something else in exchange. That’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s different to what we do.

King knows a thing or two about well-designed community housing precincts. As chief of the agency for the past eight years, she holds a storied background in social and affordable housing, which she ‘fell into’, before she “got quite passionate about it.”

“(Our work is both) commercial and social. There’s an inherent tension in that, trying to balance the two, but that’s also where the impact lies. You can do so much good, and the outcomes you deliver really matter,” she says.

“From a design perspective, a community housing building has to be indistinguishable from private market buildings. Given we plan to hold it for a very long time, we want a building to be durable, but also to have a good aesthetic and be fit for purpose, without it being a luxury development. Operating costs are a consideration for us, because again, we’re holding it.

What's there to 'get'?

King talks of working with practices “that get community housing”. That understand the requirements of the developer, and by extension the tenants.

“I think we can mostly work with anyone, but what we need them to understand is we aren’t in it to win awards. We don’t need waterfall kitchen benchtops, and we don’t need tricky roof features. It’s all about simplicity in design — getting good quality but keeping it simple.

“So, we’re trying to give them enough flexibility to be architects — to think naturally and creatively — while giving some very clear guardrails about what our expectations are. So, I think we can probably work with most practices, but it’s an educative experience for these practices. Value alignment is also quite important.”

One practice that does ‘get it’ is TURNER, who ‘fell into it’, says Director, Dan Szwaj.

“TURNER understand what motivates us,” King says.

Szwaj equally as complimentary of King and the wider CWH team.

“What’s really good about working with Leonie and her team is that they have a clear vision, objectives, and design principles,” he says. They really understand who they are and what they want to deliver. Our values align in terms of how these projects are delivered, and our teams genuinely enjoy collaborating with each other.”

The TURNER point

An unexpected award for a social housing project in 2009 began TURNER’s exploration into the sector at a time “when no one else was focusing on it”. The award led to the commission to design Bigge Street project in Liverpool in Sydney’s southwest, where character and materiality of the project is driven by the long-term performance of the building.

Fast forward to today, and nearly every TURNER multi-residential complex now includes between five and fifteen percent affordable housing. The values and principles developed in those earlier projects ring true in those produced in later years.

“We really see the benefit in working in the community housing space. The sector informs the way we work as a practice, especially in terms of city-building, which requires diversity of housing, in the sense of offering varied housing types and opportunities” says Szwaj.

TURNER’s work in the sector is informed by internal design principles masterminded by Szwaj. TURNER’s community housing outfit is asked to create a building they’d genuinely love, to create buildings that don’t look or feel different other housing developments, to not overspend in the basement, to invest in places where people gather. Efficiency, in which more apartments are added without compromising quality, is also desired, as many community housing organisations have exhaustive waitlists.

“Community housing is quite different to its counterparts from an architectural standpoint. First, you must be genuinely interested in it beyond just the project. You must be invested in the topology, invested in understanding that your client is designing for a very specific cohort of people with varying needs that aren’t present in typical market housing. Market housing is often speculative, but this is quite particular.

“From our perspective in architecture, housing is a need for everyone, not just a selective few. That’s why some of our affordable housing projects are done pro bono — to contribute to the community and support the diversity we believe healthy communities should have.”

Better in Boronia

TURNER was commissioned by CWH to deliver Boronia Apartments, a 74-residence community housing precinct in Waterloo. Informed by the past work of both CWH and TURNER, Boronia is all those things mentioned above: practical, purposeful, communal.

King says CWH’s unique building ownership model means that longevity is key. Durability and sustainability underpin each their projects, with the desire for the building to be of high enough quality that the developer is not a constant presence onsite. Residents of other CWH-developed buildings are also paramount to the evolution of the CWH model.

Boronia is the embodiment of that concept.

“Every time we deliver a new building, we learn something new. We do a lot of consultation with our tenants, asking what’s worked, what hasn’t, and what they’d change if they could,” she says.

“We’ve spent years refining our design guidelines that speak to our goals of wellbeing, belonging, value and collaboration. So, we’ve got goals and values within those guidelines, but also things as simple as two towel rails in a bathroom and toilet holders with two screws.

“It’s those small things, but also the next level: level access, ageing in place, standalone bathtubs for easier maintenance, automatic exhaust fans for dryers so you avoid moisture and mould. Lots of little things like that. They all add up.”

“Boronia is where we are now, but we’ll learn, evolve and respond to the market for our next project.”

A gorgeous north-facing shared courtyard, referenced by both King and Swzaj, is the centre point of the building, with apartments looking onto it from upper levels. Maximising privacy without compromising on natural light, its design language is bright and open, with a plethora of opportunities for interaction between neighbouring tenants. It's also CWH’s first all-electric building, a ‘practical’ decision made given that gas was deemed unnecessary.

At the time of writing, Boronia’s tenants – a diverse cohort of workers, unemployed, elderly and families – are due to move in this week. Leonie says they’re already receiving positive feedback.

“We’re already seeing people’s eyes light up when we take them through. Even when we’ve taken applicants or stakeholders through, they can see the vision. They can see the intention behind the design. They can see how it creates a sense of community.

“In regard to it being all-electric, we started doing the work early before it was even mandated to look at how we could remove gas altogether, with a view to sustainability and climate resilience. So, Boronia being all-electric is a massive step forward for us, and I think for the industry as well.”

TURNER was mindful of the changing context of the area that surrounds Boronia, particularly the opening of a new public park situated at the rear of the building. A second entrance at the back of the site was created with this in mind. Each residence is naturally ventilated, with each apartment boasting both a street frontage and courtyard aspect, with front doors at street level and access from the courtyard.

“The result is a building that’s easy to live in, energy-efficient, and cheaper to run. It’s a small project, but it’s a neat demonstration of thoughtful, sustainable design,” Szwaj says.

Both purposeful and incidental spaces created to contrive connection among residents are situated throughout. Szwaj and TURNER call these ‘social corners’.

“We also need social spaces – both primary and secondary – where residents can bump into their neighbours. We call these ‘social corners’: areas designed for incidental, frictionless conversation, where you can chat without feeling awkward.

“It’s about more than just corridors, lift lobbies, and street access. These additional spaces foster connection and build community. The design challenge is doing this efficiently, so that the building works day-to-day while also creating these social outcomes.

“In Boronia, the courtyard and gallery access achieve this — solving functional problems while simultaneously enhancing amenity and social interaction.”

It’s this attention to everyday human interaction that turns Boronia from just another apartment block into a genuine community.

The communal horizon

City West Housing doesn’t wait for time. There’s a project under construction in Rockdale in Sydney’s south and they’re deep in the planning stages for another in Bankstown, with ‘several’ more projects in the pipeline in Sydney. There’s also the question of funding projects and working within complex financial structures, which Leonie says is keeping one side of the business quite busy.

For TURNER, the practice is currently undertaking a pro bono project for Good Shepherd New Zealand in Marrickville, called Marrickville Village, co-designed with Tribe Studio, providing affordable housing and crisis accommodation for women over 50, which aligns strongly with its values. In another crossover, Good Shepherd even consulted with City West Housing to understand how similar projects are run, which has helped inform the early pre-DA design stages.

Are we doing enough?

While CWH and TURNER are both flying the flag in their own manner regarding ‘doing their bit’ in developing and designing housing for those who need it most, there’s much work to be done. What more can the built environment industry do to ‘give back’? Do they do enough of it already?

“Obviously we need more housing, but there are a whole range of other levers that have to get pulled, because we’ve commoditised housing as an asset,” Leonie King says.

“If we start to see more housing delivered, I sincerely hope that it is well designed and we’re not just throwing up massive tower buildings with average quality. The legislation from the Building Commissioner was an important step forward.

“I’d like to see a whole-of-environment approach adopted by the entire sector, whether it be via masterplanning or local councils to create connection and social cohesion. It would be tragic if we ended up with just a lot of high-rise apartment buildings where there was no connection to the wider community.

Szwaj believes that architects are beginning to wake up to the need to provide affordable housing but are in no way at the finish line.

“Broadly, I think the affordable housing sector has historically been neglected,” he says. “Over the last ten years, however, that’s changed dramatically. There’s now considerable interest from architects, which is a positive development for the industry overall.

“That said, we haven’t reached peak involvement or altruism in affordable housing. There’s still a lot more to do. We need to keep evolving too, as the needs of residents change, and different communities across Sydney have distinct requirements. You can’t apply a one-size-fits-all solution across Sydney — affordable housing needs to be place-specific, tailored to the local community.”

In a city where affordability feels impossible, Boronia proves that good design isn’t simply down to accents and fittings. Good design is doing a public service, and one the industry must treat as central to shaping our cities.

Image: Boronia Apartments / Courtesy: TURNER.

Designing for good: How social corners are rewriting community housing conventions

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