Dan Szwaj is greeted with tears of joy. He is not a technician finally arriving to reconnect the internet, or a plumber coming to unblock the loo.
He is the architect of the Boronia apartments in the Danks Street precinct in Waterloo, who took the “stigma out” of affordable housing for a new tenant, 57-year-old Carrie-Anne Huddleston.
After losing a well-paid corporate job a few years ago, Huddleston’s life unravelled. She was priced out of her home when she was hit with a $600 a month hike in rent. Like many older single women without a partner with an income, she stayed with friends and couch-surfed, initially reluctant to try affordable housing because she had grown up in public housing in Woolloomooloo.
“I just keep crying, happy tears. I feel a huge sense of relief. You just want to have a nice place and stuff. Some people are living in cars,” Huddleston told Szwaj.
Szwaj was moved too. “It made my day.”
Huddleston said her new one-bedroom unit, in the $66 million, five-storey block with 76 units by the non-profit private enterprise City West Housing, felt glam.
Not sad at all, she told Szwaj, director of architectural firm Turner, as she leant in for a hug.
Turner’s practice has a reputation for high-quality, affordable and public housing that is “tenure-blind”. A project by the practice in Liverpool won the 2023 Premier’s Prize for architecture.
“It should be a building that anyone would choose to live in, regardless of income or circumstance,” Szwaj said.
What are often dreary utilitarian spaces, like fire stairs that can feel unsafe, with the whiff of urine, are full of light.
Apartments look away from busy Bourke Street and over a new park.
The fire stairs have been turned into a spiral staircase, with what resembles a romantic Juliet balcony at its top and descending into an increasingly green courtyard on the first floor.
And its use of much-maligned deck access – external corridors or walkways, likely to be familiar to anyone who has watched British shows such as Line of Duty or Slow Horses – connects neighbours.
Szwaj said: “The UK’s [external walkways] function as cheap access. These are on a scale where neighbours can see each other, you can make eye contact.”
UK architectural historian Owen Hatherley said the appeal of deck access – which he has in his own block – is straightforward, reported Architecture Today in the UK.
“Rather than getting to your flat through a dark, enclosed internal corridor, you reach it through a walkway partly in the open air. Like anything, it can be well-designed or badly designed, depending on such factors as width, length and spaciousness.”
Most architects would never deign to live in public or subsidised housing, Hatherley wrote.
Not so Boronia.
Award-winning architect and Churchill fellow Carol Marra’s first response was, “I could live here, this is no different from market housing”.
In some ways, it was even better, she said. The build-to-rent model by City West was built to last with robust finishes, so it’s easy to maintain.
Drains were hidden below entries and balconies to prevent water from entering the units. The floors were flush inside and out, which improved access for those with a disability, and made them easy to repair.
The project was designed when the maximum height limit was lower than it is now, but Szwaj said they had to anticipate future development. “We did this by maximising the prime frontage facing the future park, having apartments facing each of the future street aspects, making use of multiple entries, and creating a central, north-facing courtyard as a communal focus.”
Developer Coronation Property plans to build five blocks directly to the north of Boronia with about 850 homes, including an estimated 70 affordable units and 400 build-to-rent. The tallest could be 29 storeys.
As part of the Herald’s reviews of apartment life, Marra and two other experts on multi-residential housing – Peter McGregor, the director of McGregor Westlake Architecture, and his award-winning associate director Damien Madell – agreed to visit.
Marra, a co-founder of architectural practice Marra+Yeh, saw families hanging out on the corridors, looking down into the courtyard. Residents were using the external stairs rather than the lift and enjoying the internal courtyard.
“There is a generosity to those very functional but highly used areas, corridors, stairs, which turns them into amenities for the residents. Instead of those spaces being the minimum required for compliance, they have been turned into an amenity.”
Madell, who has won awards for apartment design, said the quality of the entry lobbies and the landscaped courtyard was uplifting and would elevate the daily experience of residents. “This project sets a new benchmark for its type.”
McGregor was most impressed by the courtyard layout and the building’s character. The design of the generous open-air galleries – external walkways – that overlook the courtyard and the street dealt with issues of privacy to the bedrooms with screens and small skylights connecting the floors.
“All have good sun, shade and airy qualities, a perfect model for the Sydney climate. The courtyard forms the protected heart of the building.”
Leonie King, the chief executive of City West – a charity that previously had the NSW government as a shareholder – plans more affordable housing around Green Square.
Tenants’ rent is capped at 25 to 30 per cent of household income, or 74.9 per cent of market rent, whichever is lower. Housing is targeted to households on very low and moderate incomes, with a connection to the area.
About 64 per cent of residents at Boronia work, and of those, 35 per cent are essential workers. Others moved from nearby Waterloo Estate.
The rent is based on the gross income of its residents, not on how big the apartment is or the number of bedrooms. A single mum with one child, for example, would be allocated a two-bedroom apartment and would pay the same amount of rent if she had three children and needed a larger unit.
Finding an affordable unit is still hard, something Huddleston experienced first-hand.
Only 2 per cent of the 40,000 homes promised by Housing Australia Future Fund over five years have been completed, reported The Australian Financial Review’s Michael Bleby. Boronia and Assemble’s Swift Walk development in Melbourne were among the first 895 social and affordable homes completed last year. A further 9485 homes are expected to be finished this year, with another 8000 in the works, he reported.
Back on her balcony that will soon have a view of a new 1400-square-metre public park, Huddleston said she appreciated the small touches – places to put photos, the soft-touch drawers in bathroom and kitchen, built-in laundry, a lot of storage, and screening from the entryway.
“It’s new, it’s calm and it’s bright. I feel very safe here. It’s been a gift. My mother said if I didn’t take it she wouldn’t talk to me.” To make ends meet, she had been working as a birth and death doula, and is looking for more work. “I didn’t get married, I didn’t have kids, it is really hard. What’s great, if I lose my work, I can ring these guys, they will work with me, won’t have to worry about being homeless. It’s having a landlord who gives a shit. They actually care.”
A new Register of Affordable Housing Dwellings will soon track affordable homes in NSW, where they are and who manages them, and ensure they follow guidelines.
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Julie Power is a senior reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.
