ABSTRACT
Market demand for housing in a growing city drives densification and infill development, but the majority of this simply duplicates existing historical suburban types and reduces the space around them. Increasing the range of approaches to grouping and building suburban dwellings is important in an Australian context—where there are well-established industries in place to deliver detached single houses at one end of the spectrum and high-rise apartment buildings at the other. The range of options between these extremes is often referred to as the ‘missing middle’. It is, in fact, this type of density that many people would choose, enabling them to live in a relatively convenient location at a relatively affordable price range.
In this chapter, we experiment with a precinct-scaled design approach to suburban infill redevelopment. Allotments within a notional precinct territory of one square kilometre are analysed for their collective rejuvenating potential and considered as potential catalysts for wider precinct transformation. Certain allotments that allow new pedestrian linkages or through-block urban connections are highlighted, while others with less potential can potentially be sold to fund more intensive redevelopment. Through a process of precinct-wide community engagement and partnership with local councils and businesses, a site-specific local masterplan based on actual site potential rather than blanket development controls is developed, outlining a more holistic and cooperative process of urban renewal within this typically atomised suburban fabric.
