And there are more on the way.
Whether we like them or not, high rise apartment buildings offer a distinctly different way of living to what most Queenslanders have been used to. But are we really living in them?
There are now more than 84,000 apartments in inner city Brisbane and alarmingly it is reported by housing market analyst Michael Matusik that there are “high un-occupancy rates” (on average 35 per cent across southeast Queensland) in new projects. Many apartments – 60 per cent – are rented. The major age group is between 25 and 35 and the majority (51 per cent) are women. And more apartments are coming…
What impact are these buildings making on their inhabitants and the city at large?
A city’s planning structure sets the scene for its character and that character is established by buildings in three ways: shaping the city skyline with their form and texture; shaping their local community with the way they interact with it at ground level, and shaping the lives of their occupants by the way they deal with the physiology of their inhabitants.
Ideally a city’s buildings should give benefit equally to these three things.
In dealing with the first – form and texture – high rise apartment buildings may give architects more choice than commercial buildings in how they express their form. Apartment buildings have more opportunities for texture with balconies and different window sizes. However, their designers are constrained because each apartment must be individually sold (unlike a commercial building that has one owner) and selling agents do not like too many variations in apartment types, thus while these apartment buildings may have more design scope, many are built to a formula.
If some newer high-rise apartments appear bland, this has to do with the treatment of the exterior skin of the building. Whereas apartment buildings once carried their weight on the exterior of their frame, the cheaper production of glass has allowed buildings to be built quickly and effectively with a few millimetres of glass separating the inside from the outside, saving costs.
Balustrades that once gave the buildings texture are now glass. To add interest there are sometimes random patterns introduced on the outside to cover for the blandness, but texture is lost. Changing these buildings is very difficult because there are multiple owners, so they are there for keeps.
In looking at the second point – the impact with the local community – high rise apartment buildings often lose the character of the street. At this level there is an attempt for what planners call “street activation” (sometimes this turns out to be a service business which doesn’t really need the street for its operation). The great maw of the large vehicle and goods entrances disrupt the street character. Any common facilities provided by the buildings are exclusively reserved for residents.
As for the third point – the inhabitants – the anonymity of the long internal apartment corridors means once your front door shuts, you are isolated. Many of the new apartments are small with little storage and drying spaces. With limited parking and with a build cost of over $10,000 per square metre they are expensive considering the limited amenity that is offered.
In coping with Brisbane’s rapid expansion, more residential stock must be built, but that new stock should complement, not ignore the existing city pattern. They need to give more equal weight to the three elements listed above if they want to truly meet the needs of those seeking homes.
Brisbane is a profoundly vibrant and interesting city because of its character derived from its hills, which have given rise to suburbs that mixed rich and poor, large and small families. They still provide a diversity from which its character derives and that should be celebrated and enhanced, not ignored by these new entrants into our city.
What do you think of Brisbane’s high rises? Have your say – email us at editorial@village-voice.com.au
