New Zealand, we have a problem. We’re building bland and barely liveable townhouses. The soulless, grey-faced misery boxes listed on Trade Me make for grim viewing. Cramped layouts, a mishmash of shapes, styles, colours and materials, tiny AstroTurfed backyards, blank façades staring unblinkingly at concrete driveways. One could almost excuse the cheapness if it were reflected in the price, but more often than not, these units are being sold at a premium to generate the highest profit obtainable in a market short on supply.
Housing is changing because we’ve realised our endless suburban sprawl isn’t sustainable. We need to build better, more affordable and more liveable urban neighbourhoods, which requires embracing alternative housing typologies.
Shifts in local and central government policy, such as the medium density residential standards (MDRS), have resulted in a boom in townhouse construction – up from 6% of new building consents in 2012 to about 45% now. Although in theory we should welcome this increase in housing diversity, the principles of good design and construction haven’t caught up with a market hungry to increase supply.
Townhouses should exist as desirable alternatives to our traditional standalone homes. Liveability, quality, character, greenspace, attractive streetscapes and aesthetics should be considered. Think of the beautiful terrace housing in Melbourne or Sydney – neat rows of brick and wrought-iron lacework among leafy green streets, close to the city centre or public transport, parks and corner shops. They are attractive, comfortable and highly sought after. These neighbourhoods were built more than 150 years ago and are thriving.
Here, well-designed townhouses tend to be the exception, thanks to developers aiming for maximum profit.
In New South Wales, the state government has invited architects from around the world to enter a “Housing Pattern Book” design competition. A pattern book is a series of high-quality, standardised plans that are made available for developers and landowners to use under licence. All the difficulty and costs associated with designing and documenting these plans are already taken care of. An initiative to come up with a playbook of approved, innovative terrace and mid-rise homes for the 21st century should also be adopted here.
These plans would be affordable, sustainable, easy to build and the results highly liveable. They would include adaptation guidelines to suit different site orientations, topographies and climates around the country. Developed to meet MDRS requirements and building code compliant, they would streamline the consenting process, save hundreds of thousands of dollars in consultant fees and cut down the months or years needed to prepare the required documentation. Standardised designs would enable mass production of key components like windows, kitchens and bathrooms to further reduce costs and speed up construction.
Faced with the choice between licensing a high-quality design or investing time and money into something subpar, developers would likely opt for the easy approach. Much of Australia’s historical terrace housing was built from pattern books. Melbourne has developed the Future Homes scheme, which licenses designs for high-quality apartment buildings. Developers pay just A$150 ($165) to access the documentation needed for resource consent. The planning process is streamlined, making signoff quick and easy.
Developing the Aotearoa Townhouse Pattern Book would be straightforward. A collaboration between the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment and Te Kāhui Whaihanga New Zealand Institute of Architects could be established to manage it, the associated costs kept low and easily recouped through licensing fees. The potential impact of such a scheme on the future of our cities is huge.
William Samuels is an award-winning architect who established his practice in Nelson in 2020 after eight years in Melbourne.
