Tony Trobe: Design fundamental to achieving high-quality apartment buildings

Careful design and material selection can reduce the long-term maintenance of apartments.

This week Tony Trobe talks to Andrew Wilson, president of the Australian Institute of Architects' ACT chapter.

TT: Canberra is having a strong public debate about building quality. What are the issues?

AW: Much of the debate is around the quality of design and build outcomes. For example, owners and tenants experience aspects of poor design, with excessive heat load in our hotter and drier climate and/or technical failures, the leaking of balconies into apartments below and unplanned, or high, maintenance costs.

Careful design and material selection can reduce the long-term maintenance. Effective maintenance ensures the longevity of buildings, sustaining the value of the property and reducing the life-cycle cost to owners.

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TT: NSW aims to improve the design quality of residential flat/apartment buildings by a policy called SEPP 65. What is this?

AW: It is a policy that promotes better apartment design. It has a companion code, the "Apartment Design Guide - Tools for improving the design of residential flat development". It was introduced in 2002 and is acknowledged as improving the design quality of apartment buildings.

The design of apartments has improved markedly. Much of this improvement can be attributed to SEPP 65 and the Residential Flat Design Code. This success indicates that design considerations are fundamental to the achievement of high-quality building projects.

TT: How does this differ from what we do?

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Tony Trobe: Design fundamental to achieving high-quality apartment buildings