Where planning regulations and development practice collide: The multi-storey apartment building in subtropical Brisbane Australia

<b>Free to read on the publishers website</b>\ud \ud Brisbane Australia has been undergoing a growth cycle since 2011, with many new apartment buildings on the skyline. Brisbane City Council’s e-Plan Multiple Dwelling Code unequivocally links the city’s character and identity, and residents’ way of life, to the local subtropical climate and landscape. Performance outcomes for code assessable apartment developments promote cross-ventilation and well-designed private outdoor spaces (for example, balconies) to be achieved by correctly designed fundamental structural controls - orientation, spatial configuration, and shading.\ud \ud A sample of recently-approved 5 – 30 storeys apartment buildings in Brisbane’s inner urban renewal areas was studied for performance under the Code. Spatial-structural architectural data were collected from documents submitted for development approval to Council’s online system. A 65-year-old apartment building recognised as an Australian significant building of the 20th Century was also analysed.\ud \ud The research identified performance gaps between planning policy and actual design. The older building out-performed the new under all criteria. Little diversity in building configurations, spatial characteristics and basic floor layouts was observed. Overall, the approach utilised by developers is producing formulaic apartments that cannot be effectively cross-ventilated and that have extremely limited or no private open space.\ud \ud Developers’ primary interests are to maximise yield and ‘the view’. This paper provides evidence that the planning code is having little effect on key items driven by these aims. These are: compact form (large building volume enclosed by a small façade area) that reduces the extent of external walls available for effective openings; and extensively glazed, unshaded external walls that are compensated for with air-conditioning technology. The quest for views is also compromising the utility of balconies with glazed balustrades diminishing usable, comfortable, private outdoor area. These products are unlikely to meet future market preferences for more authentic innovative place-based buildings and make long-term liveability and sustainability aims difficult to achieve