New Better Apartment Design Standards

Better Apartment Design Standards Released

The Victorian State Government has recently released its final version of the Better Apartment Design Standards (BADS) following exhibition of a hotly-discussed draft set of guidelines exhibitions. Released on Saturday, the new design standards appear to have responded to significant industry feedback (including submissions from DLA) and will influence new apartment development across Melbourne from March 2017 onwards.

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planning, melbourne, apartment, better apartment guidelines, statutory planning

Kirsty Smith Chairing Social Housing Reform Summit

DLA’s Kirsty Smith will be chairing the Social Housing Reform Summit in Sydney on December 1st. Kirsty is a passionate advocate of housing affordability and DLA are excited at her opportunity to take part in this event.

The summit tackles the important issue of housing affordability and liveability and “provides innovative solutions for the future of social housing”. It aims to create a strong policy driven discussion around the ways different stakeholders can engage in formulating a response to population growth, housing provision and accessibility.

Speakers are from a multitude of sectors, including government, planning firms, housing services and community groups.

Full details can be found on their website.

DLA's UDF Commended in PIA 2016 Awards

The implementation of David Lock Associates' Lara Town Centre Urban Design Framework was recently commended by the Planning Institute of Australia in the category ‘From Plan to Place’.

The City of Greater Geelong's Implementation Plan was applauded for its success in creating a “vibrant, active and pleasant destination”. The ambitious project, adopted by council in 2006, has resulted in the revitalisation of Lara Town Centre. The collaborative efforts of multiple stakeholders were central to driving the project’s success and delivering a better sense of community and place for Lara.

David Lock Associates congratulates the City of Greater Geelong in delivering the vision as set out in the UDF.

The awards ceremony, which can be found here, is an opportunity to recognise the accomplishments of planning across Victoria.

planning, pia, pia award, urban design

Promotions and Appointments at DLA

David Lock Associates has recently made some changes at both our Sydney and Melbourne offices. We are pleased to announce the promotion of Kirsty Smith to associate in Sydney, and to announce the appointment of Jonathan Halaliku in Melbourne.

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DLA Submission to the Draft ‘Better Apartments’ Guidelines

In the wake of Mark Sheppard’s recent post on the impact of the Victorian State Government’s recently released draft ‘Better Apartments’ design guidelines (and his recent successful industry presentation on behalf of VPELA on 7th September 2016, accessible here), DLA has provided a detailed submission to the design guidelines that acknowledges the need for the introduction of appropriate standards whilst recommending a number of amendments from a planning and design perspective.

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urban design, melbourne, urban planning, state planning, guidelines

Better Apartments
A step forward?

By Mark Sheppard, Principal, David Lock Associates

Victoria’s draft new apartment design standards are out for consultation.

The first thing to say is that they have adopted a ResCode-style format—the intention is that they will form part of the Particular Provisions, and have objectives that must be met and discretionary standards.  In other words, if you meet the standard, you pass.  But if you want to put forward an alternative design response, you can.

This continues Victoria’s preference for performance-based planning provisions, which provide not only the certainty of ‘deemed-to-satisfy’ provisions, but also the flexibility of allowing innovative or contextual responses where appropriate.  The objectives haven’t been expressly spelt out in the draft, although we can assume it will be a rewording of the purposes at the beginning of each standard.

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urban design, apartments, guidelines, standards, rescode, town planning melbourne

Future-proofing
Melbourne's Transport
Network

Image source: Tom Loudon @ Flickr

By Amruta Purohit and Kathryn Cuddihy

Transport projects shape the future urban form of cities. The Victorian Government recently allocated $2.4 billion in the 2015-16 Budget to remove 50 of the most dangerous level crossings from the Melbourne network. While the primary aim of any transport project should be the focus on creating benefits for all community members, does this current series of projects go far enough?

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visioning, urban design, healthy cities, transport, transport planning

The Changing Face
of Sydney

Image source: SMH

NSW Premier Mike Baird and the Minister for Local Government Paul Toole announced 19 new councils in NSW which commenced 12 May 2016. The Minister has indicated his in principle support to create a further nine new councils, subject to the decision of the courts.

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sydney, council amalgamation, planning, development approvals

Urban Greening
in High Density
Environments

Image Source: Dezeen

High density living is increasingly becoming the norm for the millions of people that want to live in our global cities. People assume that they must give up their connection to nature in order to live in central locations within our cities. However, given the increase in the amount of high rise residential apartments, designers are starting to shift towards locating high density development in locations adjacent to parklands and open spaces and are including tree planting within high density residential developments in city centres creating the “Vertical Forest”.

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planning, vertical forest, high density

Future Directions for Social Housing in NSW

‘Future Directions for Social Housing (in NSW)’ was released in January 2016, it sets out the NSW Government’s plan to transform the current social housing system over the next 10 years to meet the needs of the 21st Century.

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communities plus, social housing, planning sydney, town planning sydney