The Best Way to Design of Apartment Building

What is the Apartment Design Guide

This Apartment Design Guide is a resource to improve the planning and design of residential apartment development in NSW. It updates and replaces the Residential Flat Design Code introduced in 2002.

The Apartment Design Guide is to be used in conjunction with State Environmental Planning Policy No 65 - Design Quality of Residential Apartment Development (SEPP 65) which sets out the NSW Government's policy direction for residential apartment development in NSW.

Aims of the Guide

This Apartment Design Guide will help to achieve better design and planning for residential apartment development, by providing benchmarks for designing and assessing these developments.

It is designed to:

• deliver better quality design for buildings that respond appropriately to the character of the area, landscape setting and surrounding built form

• improve liveability through enhanced internal and external apartment amenity, including better layout, apartment depth and ceiling heights, solar access, natural ventilation and visual privacy

• deliver improved sustainability through better traffic and transport solutions, greater building adaptability and robustness, improved energy efficiency and water sensitive urban design

• improve the relationship of apartments to the public domain including streets, lanes and parks

• deliver design guidance and assist in the provision of more diverse housing mix and choice

• support councils in developing planning controls and master plans through improved guidance.

The Guide has responded to challenges, advances and innovations across a range of social, economic, environmental and sustainable development fields as well as aesthetic and technical changes and opportunities.

Who is this Apartment Design Guide for?

The Apartment Design Guide provides consistent planning and design standards for residential apartments across NSW. It has been prepared to:

• be a tool for developers, planners, urban designers, architects, landscape architects, builders and other professionals when designing apartments and preparing a development application

• assist planning professionals in local and state government with strategic planning and in the preparation of local controls, design guidelines and the assessment of development proposals.

The Guide will also help to inform the community on what is required to achieve good design and planning practice for residential apartments.

Structure of the Apartment Design Guide

The Apartment Design Guide addresses the design of residential apartment development at the site and individual building scale. It includes the following parts:

Part 1 - Identifying the context

This part introduces generic apartment building types to inform appropriate site, block and building design responses at a strategic level. It outlines the importance of understanding the context, setting, local character, size and configuration of a development site. It is to be used primarily during the design stage of a development and during the strategic planning process when preparing planning controls.

Part 2 - Developing the controls

This part explains the application of building envelopes and primary controls including building height, floor space ratio, building depth, separation and setbacks. It provides tools to support the strategic planning process when preparing planning controls.

Part 3 - Siting the development

This part provides guidance on the design and configuration of apartment development at a site scale. It outlines how to relate to the immediate context, consider the interface to neighbours and the public domain, achieve quality open spaces and maximise residential amenity.

It is to be used during the design process and in the preparation and assessment of development applications.

Part 4 - Designing the building

This part addresses the design of apartment buildings in more detail. It focuses on building form, layout, functionality, landscape design, environmental performance and residential amenity. It is to be used during the design process and in the preparation and assessment of development applications.

Design Quality Principles (SEPP 65)

Development application and assessment process

The Apartment Design Guide provides a resource for pre-development application (pre-DA) discussions between applicants and consent authorities. The guide advocates meetings early on in the design and planning process to focus on how to ensure the best built form configuration, siting and design outcomes.

Appendix 2 of this guide provides recommendations and a list of suggested documents for pre-DA discussions.

Development application submission requirements for residential apartment developments are set within the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000. Residential apartment developments also need to meet the requirements set out in SEPP 65, which includes a suite of nine design quality principles.

The checklist in Appendix 3 of this guide elaborates on the required information for development application submissions and explains the purpose of each item in more detail.

The SEPP 65 design quality principles act as an important link between the provisions of SEPP 65 and the more detailed design guidance contained in this Apartment Design Guide.

Application of the design quality principles

The SEPP 65 design quality principles must be considered by design professionals when designing residential apartment development, by design review panels when giving advice on proposals and by consent authorities.

Principle 1: Context and Neighbourhood Character

Good design responds and contributes to its context. Context is the key natural and built features of an area, their relationship and the character they create when combined. It also includes social, economic, health and environmental conditions.

Responding to context involves identifying the desirable elements of an area’s existing or future character. Well designed buildings respond to and enhance the qualities and identity of the area including the adjacent sites, streetscape and neighbourhood. Consideration of local context is important for all sites, including sites in established areas, those undergoing change or identified for change.

Principle 2: Built Form and Scale

Good design achieves a scale, bulk and height appropriate to the existing or desired future character of the street and surrounding buildings.

Good design also achieves an appropriate built form for a site and the building’s purpose in terms of building alignments, proportions, building type, articulation and the manipulation of building elements. Appropriate built form defines the public domain, contributes to the character of streetscapes and parks, including their views and vistas, and provides internal amenity and outlook.

Principle 3: Density

Good design achieves a high level of amenity for residents and each apartment, resulting in a density appropriate to the site and its context.

Appropriate densities are consistent with the area’s existing or projected population. Appropriate densities can be sustained by existing or proposed infrastructure, public transport, access to jobs, community facilities and the environment.

Principle 4: Sustainability

Good design combines positive environmental, social and economic outcomes. Good sustainable design includes use of natural cross ventilation and sunlight for the amenity and liveability of residents and passive thermal design for ventilation, heating and cooling reducing reliance on technology and operation costs.

Other elements include recycling and reuse of materials and waste, use of sustainable materials, and deep soil zones for groundwater recharge and vegetation.

Principle 5: Landscape

Good design recognises that together landscape and buildings operate as an integrated and sustainable system, resulting in attractive developments with good amenity. A positive image and contextual fit of well designed developments is achieved by contributing to the landscape character of the streetscape and neighbourhood.

Good landscape design enhances the development’s environmental performance by retaining positive natural features which contribute to the local context, co-ordinating water and soil management, solar access, micro-climate, tree canopy, habitat values, and preserving green networks. Good landscape design optimises usability, privacy and opportunities for social interaction, equitable access, respect for neighbours’ amenity, provides for practical establishment and long term management.

Principle 6: Amenity

Good design positively influences internal and external amenity for residents and neighbours. Achieving good amenity contributes to positive living environments and resident well being.

Good amenity combines appropriate room dimensions and shapes, access to sunlight, natural ventilation, outlook, visual and acoustic privacy, storage, indoor and outdoor space, efficient layouts and service areas, and ease of access for all age groups and degrees of mobility.

Principle 7: Safety

Good design optimises safety and security, within the development and the public domain. It provides for quality public and private spaces that are clearly defined and fit for the intended purpose. Opportunities to maximise passive surveillance of public and communal areas promote safety.

A positive relationship between public and private spaces is achieved through clearly defined secure access points and well lit and visible areas that are easily maintained and appropriate to the location and purpose.

Principle 8: Housing Diversity and Social Interaction

Good design achieves a mix of apartment sizes, providing housing choice for different demographics, living needs and household budgets.

Well designed apartment developments respond to social context by providing housing and facilities to suit the existing and future social mix. Good design involves practical and flexible features, including different types of communal spaces for a broad range of people, providing opportunities for social interaction amongst residents.

Principle 9: Aesthetics

Good design achieves a built form that has good proportions and a balanced composition of elements, reflecting the internal layout and structure. Good design uses a variety of materials, colours and textures.

The visual appearance of well designed apartment development responds to the existing or future local context, particularly desirable elements and repetitions of the streetscape.

Part 1 Identifying The Context

Part 2 Developing The Controls