High density lessons: How community spaces can help make apartment living more appealing

The world has about 141 billion square metres of housing stock. But it will need to nearly double that by 2030 to house our growing population.

That’s the equivalent of 547 million more Australian-style detached homes – but for many cities, tall buildings are the way of the future. And crowded cities can be made more liveable, according to one expert, if we learn from some of Singapore’s unique buildings. 

“Sky gardens” – the green spaces created at height in some building developments across Asia – are one way to help residents manage the potential stresses of high-density living according to Philip Oldfield, senior lecturer in high-performance architecture from UNSW.

Dr Oldfield presented his research on the emotional experience of the residents living inside Singapore’s Pinnacle@Duxton development at the recent Design Speaks Housing Futures forum.

The 50-storey residential development has two “sky gardens” — one halfway up the building and the other on the top floor – and both are used and valued by residents as a reprieve from high-density living.

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Dr Oldfield said while the Singaporean housing market was unique in that most properties were government-managed, his research offered two key lessons for the Australian market.

“We need to create spaces for social interaction, for community, and for rest and relaxation,” he said, adding that there were not enough of these spaces in Australian developments.

The other lesson was around the way these spaces were governed.

“It’s not just what you design – it’s how you manage it,” he said. “It fundamentally affects the success of the development.”

He found residents were frustrated by the strict policing of the areas – for example, they weren’t allowed to bring guests, and food and drinks were banned.

Dr Oldfield said  developers and architects needed to consult with residents to allow them to use public spaces, and be able to stamp their own identity on these areas.

Successful developments such as Central Park, Sydney, gave a positive insight as to what high-density living can be like, he said.

Another insight from overseas into how apartments could better serve their inhabitants was also presented at the forum by Alison Von Glinow, a New York-based architect.

Her firm’s “Table Top Walk-Up” concept is an award-winning modular building system designed to  address affordable housing problems in the city.

Developed for New York’s 25-foot lots, the apartments are designed as stackable modules, with larger shared spaces such as landings and balconies providing community areas.

“Instead of trying to pack more people in more densely, it’s how can we create a community within the building itself,” she said.

“When people are starting out – the community should be quite strong, to help each other out. They can learn from each other,” said Ms Von Glinow.

“You could say that we weren’t the most efficient with our use of space, but that is on purpose,” she said, adding that the typical developer response was to maximise the space given to individual apartments.