Tighter controls sought for apartment quality
Melbourne’s lord mayor Robert Doyle has called for tighter controls on the building of apartments including an “appropriate minimum size” for units. Many of the city’s high-rise towers are full of bad-quality apartments but investors don’t care as long as they get the rent, according to The Age.
Melbourne City Council’s Future Living report has estimated 55 per cent of the city’s tallest apartment buildings (over 15 storeys) are inferior quality, with cramped units, poor natural light, kitchens in hallways, poor storage, lack of ventilation and excessive energy use. Windowless bedrooms exist in almost a quarter of new residential developments studied.
According to The Age some of Melbourne’s architects are so unhappy with the result of buildings they have designed they have refused to have their name associated with them, the Australian Institute of Architects has revealed. AIA president, Melbourne architect Jon Clements, is backing calls for minimum apartment design standards, mandated through legislation.
“The general feeling among architects is that it’s ridiculous to be forcing architects to produce buildings that don’t deliver appropriate quality and amenity standards,” he said.
Melbourne City Council’s Future Living report that analysed the design of 25 of the city’s new residential developments, found apartment designs were considered either poor or average quality. But the report’s authors said as long as there was someone willing to rent the property, the investors who buy 85 per cent of apartments in the municipality were not bothered.
There are no laws in Victoria governing how apartments must be designed, beyond the National Construction Code. A set of apartment design standards is currently being developed by the Office of the Victorian Government Architect and planning minister Matthew Guy is committed to enforcing them, according to The Age.
Mr Clements said some developers would simply employ another designer if an architect made a stand on apartment quality standards. “If there is legislation in place around minimum standards.
Another report revealed Melbourne is home to developments so dense that they would not pass laws in Hong Kong, New York and London, prompting concerns the city was building the slums of the future.
Problems with new-build apartment complexes are not confined to Melbourne. One of Australia’s largest developers has spent six months building a series of inner Sydney apartment towers it is accused of not having full approval to build.
The NSW Land and Environment Court will decide this week whether to force a cease work at the Waterloo site, where Harry Triguboff’s Meriton is building 355 apartments in five towers between 10 and 25 storeys. City of Sydney Council said the ”serious and significant breach” including excavation work, construction of basement car parking and construction work has been completed without the necessary approvals being obtained
Meriton was granted development consent for the project last year with approval for some preliminary work but not the construction certificate required before construction can begin.
Council said its senior staff had met with the company twice and ”provided an opportunity for them to voluntarily stop building works” before resorting to the legal action.
