This article is from the Australian Property Journal archive
VICTORIA’S Planning Minister Richard Wynne has introduced new apartment standards to crackdown on so called “dog box” units in Melbourne.
After a year of consultation on its Better Apartments initiative, the government has released a draft outlining a number of new rules, however the guidelines stopped short of introducing minimum sizes for apartments for Melbourne, such as the 50 sqm for one bedroom and 70 sqm for two bedrooms in Sydney introduced by the NSW government.
The Minister defended the decision not to impose minimum apartment sizes because he argued that does not equal good design.
Instead the new guidelines includes adequate ventilation for all bedrooms, living rooms, dining rooms, kitchens and studies. At least 60% of dwellings with a finished floor level less than 35 metres height should be naturally cross ventilated. All rooms less than 80 metres height should be provided with openable windows or doors in an external wall of the building. For dwellings up to 35 metres, 60% of apartments should be naturally cross ventilated.
Furthermore the guideline also proposes that a room should have a window in an external wall of the building that is visible from any point in the room.
The guideline says a dwelling should have private open space consisting of an area of 25 sqm, with a minimum dimension of 3 metres at natural ground floor level and convenient access from a living room, or an area of 15 sqm, with a minimum dimension of 3 metres at a podium or other similar base and convenient access from a living room.
There is also a proposed setback with buildings of five or more storeys, up to 13.5 metres required to have a minimum setback of 6 metres from side and read boundaries and 12 metres.
For buildings between 13.5 metres to 25 metres, the minimum setback from side and rear boundaries of 9 metres and a minimum setback from buildings within the site of 18 metres.
For buildings with over 25 metres, the setback is 12 metres setback from side and rear boundaries and minimum setback from buildings within the site to 24 metres.
Wynne said the draft standards will now go before a final round of consultation before it is launched in September this year.
“We think it’s important that standards are in place to deal with issues like natural light into apartments, ventilation, storage,” he said. “These are pretty basic considerations, we think, for apartment style dwellings.”
Australian Property Journal
