Research conducted by the UNSW has found that the layouts of Australian apartments are not being designed for families, which has led to the university calling for more diverse spatial configurations.

Published in Australian Geographer, the findings were made after 368 apartments were studied across Greater Sydney. The university accounted for floor areas, the amount of bedrooms and the relationships between each space. Qualitative interviews were also undertaken with architects and developers, as well as apartment owners with families.

One and two bedroom apartments are far and away the most common within the Sydney housing market, taking up 81 percent of all new apartment stock. 55 percent are ‘centre-shared’ spaces that don’t comprise a hallway or corridor.

“We know that good-quality, well-designed apartments can make excellent homes for families with children, and while more families are making apartments their homes, too few are being designed with their needs in mind,” says study Co-Author Philip Oldfield, Head of the School of Built Environment at UNSW Arts, Design & Architecture.

“Generally, developers focus more on the number of bedrooms and location than on architectural design or room layout. They prefer generic, standardised apartment layouts that meet the minimum regulations because they’re cheaper to make and easier to sell, but that is fundamentally mismatched with what families want.”

What families want, as Oldfield indicates, are versatile layouts, which can be altered depending on their children’s ages for privacy, supervision, and shared spaces. Developers have indicated that one and two-bedroom layouts without a hallway are deliberately designed to appeal to investors, while architects interviewed say they often utilised design templates provided by developers.

“While architects are more concerned with creating a better living environment, developers’ decision-making is most influential for apartment developments, which may lead to design outcomes that put the desires of investors ahead of families with children,” says the study’s Lead Author Hyungmo Yang.

“They also sell to the unit’s first purchasers, so it is difficult for them to anticipate who will live in an apartment over time and what their needs are.”

The researchers have floated the prospect of moveable internal walls and furniture becoming commonplace in apartments. Oldfield describes each as “easy, low-cost solutions''. Adaptable floorplans have also been discussed within the study.

“Designing good-quality apartments is one of the most fundamental things you can do to benefit society,” Oldfield says. 

“That means designing them for the needs of the people who live there, not just those who buy them.”