When it comes to residential design for the masses, architectural commissions in Australia are something along the lines of 3-4% of the pie. That means that the vast majority of new housing built today is NOT authored by architects. This is of concern to me, as I believe that good design is necessary to responsibly densify this city, and this can only be achieved by a sensitive contextual response that an architect can provide. A standardised volume builder home cannot deliver the precise requirements that a site demands. So where are the barriers? In my opinion:

• Architectural commissions are viewed as expensive and unaffordable, and don’t offer a return on investment
• Architects are viewed as elitist and unapproachable
• Most people cannot understand the design/planning/documentation/building process, and don’t know who to ask/where to start
• Most people view residential design as a product, not a service, and commoditise housing to an end product

Unfortunately, a lot of these assumptions are somewhat true to a degree, however it needn’t be this way. I feel a shift in mindset needs to take place to increase the proportion of well designed housing:

• Value needs to be placed upon the process of design
• Perception of status needs to be shifted from quantity of space to quality of build
• Consumerist attitudes must change to encourage living with less items and less space
• Global thinking in relation to environmental and social impact must be at the forefront of a client’s motivation
• Education of the market (real estate agents and developers) to rethink flexible models of living will result in adaptable housing types – e.g. multi-generational families, home/office environments
• Rethinking the client brief with the client – for example, perhaps a client thinks they need 3 bedrooms, but in reality only requires transitional sleeping areas to accommodate 4 people.

In short, design costs money – this includes the process of design as well as the construction of a good product. We need to spend MORE on the quality of the build, and LESS on the amount of floor area, and rethink how spaces can be evolve over time. In this way, longer term and bigger picture thinking demonstrates that housing will cost less, reduce environmental impact, be more specific to a client’s requirements and be sympathetic to the site. There is certainly more than one way to address this issue, one of which is photographed at the top – Habitat 21 in Dandenong features small 6 star housing by local architects to fit onto smaller sized land parcels. Wiki-houses is another option, which utilises open sourcing for the design of house plans allowing the local building economy to prevail, but still treats housing as a commodity. The list goes on.

Another method is something I’m proposing – a starting point to enter the jungle that is architectural design. I’m offering initial consultations for your residential design needs. For $200 per [metropolitan] site visit, I’ll come out and view your site, have a meeting with you to discuss your needs, provide a list of steps and a general timeframe, as well as provide ideas for what can be achieved. On a broader scale, what is actually happening is that you are partaking in some critical thinking of your block of land, factoring impacts beyond the micro needs and opening up the possibility of a customised solution that seeks to achieve the shift in mindset as outlined above. Seemingly overwhelming, but together we can workshop to synthesize the competing interests to reach an outcome far greater than any volume builder home can deliver. It may not involve myself personally providing architectural services – I may act as an agent for another architect that is a better fit for your needs/ethos.

Are you interested in taking the first step? Drop me a line or an email: esther@socialarchitect.com.au.

With the Melbourne International Flower and Garden Show coming up in a month’s time, I’ve been busy finalising the details of my ‘Coffee Street’ landscape design – see here for details. All shortlisted entrants effectively project manage the entire construction of the garden. Last Thursday, I went out to Lynbrook to meet up with Simon Lindsay from Plantmark to chat about plant selection. Here’s the synopsis.

Dichondra ‘silver falls’ – a beautiful creeper with grey foliage that drapes/weeps in a manner that evokes the iron lacework commonly associated with row housing. He’s put aside 30x 140mm pots – in a month’s time, they will be draping gracefully to soften and frame the faux terrace house.

Senecio serpens – blue chalk sticks – the ‘it’ plant for several seasons now, this blue succulent has vertical spikes, which for me creates a mini side fence, formally similar to picket fencing.

Coffea arabica trees – for obvious reasons, given this garden gives a sense of coffee! This tree is typically grown in tropical environments and gives fruit in spring; the trees available in Plantmark are only in 140mm pots, so we’ve decided to group several of these in milk crates and add a Macadamia tree (chosen for its similar appearance) to give height.

Black mondo grass – 1500 of these tubestock plants are going into coffee cups, mounted on a steel mesh grid vertical wall. Yes, I thought it was crazy too, but the good people at Landscaping Victoria thought it just might be feasible. These were chosen to represent the bluestone blockwork found on early Melbourne terrace houses.

White foliage plants – yet TBC due to quantities, but 1200 of these are also going into coffee cups to represent mortar joints between the bluestone blockwork.

Carex comans brown, carex buchannii and carex frosted curls are the grasses chosen for the mass planting at the front. Gradations of brown to white are intended to depict a giant cappucino cup! These plants were chosen for their fine foliage and ability to blend colour, and for their consistency of little variation – there are no flowers or branches, etc. Their simplicity is what makes these great plants.

Acacia cognata ‘dazzler’ – I know this is another ‘it’ plant of late – one of the many minicogs going around – but this was chosen for its similarity in form to the carexes, but it also doesn’t grow as high. This is intended to provide a backdrop to the carexes, allowing their colours and height to really be emphasized. Also, this will appear as lawn, not too dissimilar to some terrace houses that use turf in their front yards.

The quantities of plants here are enormous – as there is no actual planting due to inability to penetrate the ground plane of the heritage listed Carlton Gardens, all plants are kept in their pots, so they are placed as closely as possible. All up, approximately $50k of plants go into each garden – a remarkable loan from the supplier!

Will keep you up to date on further progress…I can say that the kind folk Matt Perger and Salvatore Malatesta at St Ali will be supplying coffee cups, coffee beans for ‘gravel’ and some coffee grinds for fertiliser. Stay tuned for photos under construction…