Missing Middle Housing Fields
The suburban lot, re-conceived as a field of growth and activity where occupants have the capacity to curate their own private and public lives. Our proposal for the NSW Government Architect’s Missing Middle Design Competition.
Housing fields
In our Housing Fields project, the typically consolidated dual-occupancy type is decomposed into a series of adaptable pavilions, distributed within a productive garden or ‘field’.
Spaces and surfaces are designed to be programmed as-needed by users of the site, with an emphasis on adaptability, efficiency and production. The dual-occupancy has its own capacity to be divided into smaller dwellings.
A series of architectural devices unlock potential for sub-letting, reprogramming and other simple adaptations. These moves explore the dual-occupancy typology beyond the model anticipated by the NSW The Low Rise Medium Density Housing Code.
Linking frames
A series of connecting passageways connect groupings of small, pre-fabricated pavilions. We called these passageways ‘linking frames’ and they allow the interconnected pavilions to be de-couple from one another. Building in this flexibility offers various configurations of interconnected and autonomous spaces, attuned to the changing needs of residents.
Transparent and timber shutters flank each linking frame. When closed the linking frame forms a hallway, connecting two pavilions into a larger home. Depending on which shutter is up, the passageway is opened to private outdoor space or communal outdoor space. When both shutters are up the linking frame frames a view between private and communal outdoor space.
Background
The middle-ring suburbs of Sydney are characterised by a fine-grained subdivision and generally arranged on a regular urban grid. With the right legislation, these inherent qualities provide the perfect framework for walkable communities that are vibrant, popular and diverse to emerge.
We believe the deployment of new, more-open land-use typologies will be key to the success of the Missing Middle. Our architectural proposals offer variations within traditional building types. Each explores a milieu of spatial conditions empowering occupants with the capacity to curate their own private and public lives.
Access over ownership
The intent of these spaces is to break down ‘consumer’ notions of private ownership. This is achieved by curating small private moments with a hierarchy generous and memorable shared spaces at the heart of each site. It is hoped that the endearing nature of shared spaces provides opportunity for urban actors to evolve from private consumer to urban citizen.
A regularised structural and services ‘scaffold’ establishes a fine-grained urban rhythm in the streetscape and demarcates an overall volume for each dwelling. Design-life 100+ years.
Two-household configuration
Two generous homes set amongst the landscape. Between them sits a shared bathhouse, library and barbecue area. A common circulation ‘mews’ interrupts transverse bands of edible gardens, canopy trees and useable ground plane.
Car and bicycle share schemes are provided to minimise the need for private vehicle ownership. These schemes provide the service of mobility without the cost of owning a car. They will allow residents to live more affordably. One car space is dedicated for the private vehicle of a special needs resident on an as-required basis.
Fine-grained occupation
Dual Occupancy becomes Sextuple Occupancy when all the linking frames are opened (see the above example). With both shutters up the linking frame provides a threshold between each of the long boundaries connecting productive landscape across the site.
Beyond draft SEPP code compliance the introduction of small and flexible business spaces will enrich the life and experience of the site. Home industries and small scaled establishments are ideal additions to medium density residential areas.
As the suburbs transition into more vibrant, dense and diverse places the need for a high quality design outcome becomes more acute. For the exempt and complying approvals pathway we recommend the SEPP be modified to ensure only registered architects are entitled to submit.
Architectural ideas competition
Housing Fields was one of two submissions that we submitted to the Missing Middle design competition, run by Planning NSW. Housing Fields joined more than 100 innovative and creative entries in the competition focused on housing typologies for middle-ring densification described as the "missing middle”.
The intention of the competition was to test a draft State Planning Policy and provide alternative housing options that bridge the gap between free-standing houses and apartment buildings. Judging of the Missing Middle Competition was completed in January 2017 with the winning designs announced by planning minister Anthony Roberts in mid April.
Insights gained from assessment of the competition proposals will help to shape the final Medium Density Design Guide, assisting the NSW Government’s efforts to improve supply, choice and design of these popular housing types. Planning minister Anthony Roberts said ‘The 111 entries were so imaginative and resourceful that the government was now looking at building some of the submissions as demonstration homes’.
Project: Missing Middle Housing Fields
Type: Residential
Location: Granville, NSW
Client: NSW Government Architect Design Competition submission
Year: 2017
Area: 320 sqm gross floor area
Services: Architecture - Sketch Design
Team: A RAW Architects project - Adam Russell
Project Code: 1643