Design Excellence Competition winner revealed for Sydney affordable housing

AJC Architects have been named the winners of an invited City of Sydney Design Excellence Competition for affordable housing buildings in Alexandria, with the winning scheme revealing buildings broken up into "intimate neighbourhoods."

AJC Architects was one of three architecture practices invited to participate in the design competition, alongside SJB and Embece. The project, developed by City West, proposes the delivery of 246 affordable apartments across eight buildings of seven to 12 storeys at a corner site on Botany Road.

The winning practice used a multi-core design strategy to break up the building massing into a series of connected "neighbourhoods." These neighbourhoods enable natural light and ventilation to be drawn through the building into rooms often unable to access these elements.

The facade will respond to the robust masonry forms located within the urban context, while activated street frontages have been proposed through the establishment of retail offerings.

One third of the site, about 2,400 square metres, will be dedicated to communal shared space. Occupants from each neighbourhood will be encouraged to interact through a series of connected, shared landscapes. Landscape design has been undertaken by Peter Ireland, with shared landscapes recognising the Traditional Custodians of the land - the Gadi, Merooberah and Kamay clans - by incorporating a selection of materials and plants that will reference the wetlands and sand dunes, which previously existed in the area.

Two-storey entry lobbies provide additional spaces for socialisation, along with visual connections to the internal gardens and streetscape.

AJC studio lead Lee Collard said the practice used findings from their own studies to inform the design. "We've been developing and refining the multi-core model as part of this project, along principles from our Urban Backyard study, which, combined will deliver outstanding amenity, and also help cultivate community among residents," Collard said.

"The multi-core breaks down the development into more relatable communities. In this scheme, it's up to a maximum of four apartments per floor, which gives it a neighbourly feel. That's well below the Apartment Design Guide (ADG) stipulation of 8-12 per floor (maximum) for optimal harmony among residents. The multi-core design also provides opportunities for windows where typical apartments wouldn't have - kitchens, bathrooms, laundries, etc, and we've been prototyping the model to solve access issues sometimes associated with multi-core buildings."

Work on the development application process will begin in early 2024.