[+] What a Waste: Public Housing Demolition Rethink Urged

When the 54-story Quay Quarter Tower opened for tenants on Sydney’s harbour front early last year, it looked exactly like what it was—a shiny new office building. But to the better-trained eye, or those with some knowledge of Bridge Street in downtown Sydney, the twisting 216m tower with the series of concrete, glass and steel cantilevered blocks stacked one upon the other, it was much more than that. To begin with, Quay Quarter Tower (or what its owners call QQT) is not new. The core of the building—about 95 per cent of it—began life as the 46-storey AMP Building, completed in 1976. What you see today is a $600-million transformation—designed by Danish architectural firm 3XN—that keeps most of the old tower’s structure and reuses about 65 per cent of its columns, beams and slabs. Critically—and of most importance to Dr Weijie Hu, a lecturer in architecture at Swinburne University—QQT’s development strategy saved about 12,000 metric tons of embodied carbon. Hu’s doctoral research is in public housing across Asia, including Australia, and he wants the Victorian government to take note of what QQT has done. It could learn some lessons, he says. And hopefully re-evaluate a plan announced in September to demolish and rebuild 44 public housing towers across Melbourne. At the time, the then-Andrews Labor government described the Housing Statement , and it’s aims, as “the biggest shake-up to planning and housing reform in generations”. ▲ The Victoria Labor Government wants to demolish and rebuild 44 public housing towers across Melbourne. But in a yet-to-be-published paper, Hu calls for a new approach that “prioritises sustainable regeneration over the easy path of demolition”. “My research shows we can use a more sustainable approach to renovate, to transform these old buildings into new housing, instead of tearing them down and building something totally new,” Hu told The Urban Developer . “By taking this transformative approach, we can work towards addressing the housing crisis in a way that benefits all residents as well as the environment.” Hu’s research shows the demolition and reconstruction plan envisaged in Melbourne has happened in many developed countries and for many years. “In most cases it failed,” Hu says, pointing to the Pruitt-Igoe urban housing project in St Louis in the US state of Missouri. First completed in February 1956, the project was designed to replace tenement buildings and house as many as 15,000 people in 2870 apartments in 33 towers, each of 11 storeys. The 23ha complex’s occupancy rate peaked in 1957 at 91 per cent, with the population declining every year after. Those with choices moved out, leaving only the poorest residents behind. Ultimately St Louis determined that the situation was untenable and in 1972, the government imploded three buildings. By 1977 the remaining towers were brought down with a wrecking ball. ▲ Quay Quarter Tower. During reconstruction, developers retained about 95 per cent of the core of the original 46-storey AMP Building. Photo Credit: Dexus “Design innovations can increase density without compromising the liveability of the area or harming the environment,” Hu says. The lecturer spent four years practicing architecture in Western Europe, including in a Paris studio in 2015. It was here he got a look at successfully upcycled public housing projects, like the 17-storey Tour Bois-le-Prêtre in Paris’ 17th arrondissement. In 2016, architects Frederic Druot and Lacaton Vassal took up the challenge to renovate the giant building. The real challenge? Not only proving the 55-year-old tower’s image and accommodation could be successfully upgraded, but that renovation would satisfy all current requirements—including energy performance—for considerably less than demolition and reconstruction. The overall cost came in at €11.2 million ($18.5 million), or about $185,000 for each apartment. Owners Paris Habitat-OPH, a public-sector social-housing institution, estimate it saved about $14.5 million by not demolishing and rebuilding. “I hear people say all the time that tearing down these buildings and rebuilding new housing is probably cheaper, but actually it is not cheap at all,” says Hu. Back along Sydney’s Circular Quay, AMP Capital—3XN’s client and QQT’s owner and anchor tenant—makes a similar boast. ▲ Three towers of the Pruitt-Igoe urban housing project in St Louis were demolished in 1972. Five years later all 33 buildings were gone. At completion, one 3XN partner estimated that retaining as much of the older structure as they did, had slashed nine to 12 months off the build time, and saved about $100 million. Refurbishing old public housing towers can also help achieve one of the Victorian government’s stated aims, says Hu, that the replacement towers built in a public-private partnership over three decades, will have higher densities. Hu says the French architects were actually able to increase the living space in the Tour Bois-le-Prêtre example. “The architects managed to keep the old concrete structure as much as possible, but extended the tower on all four sides through the addition of self-supporting steel structures,” he says. On the shorter sides of the tower, these included extra rooms (two per floor) and new glass lifts that, as well as offering panoramic views, allowed for the removal of one of the old internal elevators to add space to the apartments. “Those French social housing towers were also built in the 60s,” he says. “So around the same time as Australian public housing. “I think in Australia, we can totally adopt the same strategy. Self-supporting extensions built next to the old towers can solve a lot of problems, like the increase in indoor space.” Hu is not alone in his belief. ▲ Dr Hu wants to follow successfully upcycled public housing projects, like the 17-storey Tour Bois-le-Prêtre in the outer suburbs of Paris. Shortly after the government’s Housing Statement became public, six academics from RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research released their own paper, arguing the government could not justify claims the towers were no longer fit for purpose. The researchers—– Libby Porter, David Kelly, Priya Kunjan, Iris Levin, Kate Shaw and Liam Davies—said in their six-page paper, the government’s policy would, in the short term, exacerbate Victoria’s housing crisis. “Supply is one dimension of many drivers that are creating the housing crisis,” the academics wrote. “This policy, however, will not realise a net gain supply within the next decade, given the simple fact that hundreds of public housing dwellings will be destroyed before the lengthy rebuild program returns any housing to these sites.” Municipalities have been lining up to agree, some are savage in their criticisms. At a meeting last month, Merri-bek City Council called on the state government to consider a program of refurbishing the existing public housing rather than demolishing and replacing it. The council, in Melbourne’s inner north, voted 9-1 to campaign against the government’s policy. It’s concerned the redevelopment of a tower at 351 Barkly Street—unlikely to happen for at least five years—could see it fall into the hands of private property developers. “We need to be really firm about the fact that public housing needs to stay in public hands, and we shouldn’t be privatising a fundamental human right,”Merri-Bek’s then-mayor Angelica Panopoulos said. ▲ As part of the curriculum, post-graduate students at Swinburne University have been asked to look at redesigning five public housing towers in Richmond. Hu has introduced the debate over renovation versus replacement into Swinburne’s architectural curriculum, asking 19 post-graduate students to look at the issue. They chose five public housing towers across several blocks of Elizabeth and Highett streets in the eastern Melbourne suburb of Richmond. “Renovation rather than replacement has always been my teaching philosophy,” he says. “I’ve asked the students to look at transforming those old social housing buildings into something new, possibly social and commercial housing. I want them to use their imaginations to design the future of Melbourne's public housing.” Yarra City Council, which takes in the five public housing towers, will be pleased. Just Wednesday a full council meeting voted unanimously to “strongly oppose the privatisation of public housing sites across the City of Yarra including by way of sale or lease of public housing land”. The motion, first mooted by councillor Sophie Wade, noted that “without adequate consideration of the conditions of each building by the State government, the potential for redevelopment, refurbishment and renovation has not been fully explored.” Hu will be happy with that. “I'm a university lecturer,” he says, “so, you know, I don't have the power to change the regulations or policies here. “But as an educator, I can educate the next generation of Australian architects.” ▲ Upon completion, refurbishing Sydney's Quay Quarter Tower saved about 12,000 metric tons of embodied carbon. Photo: Dexus You are currently experiencing The Urban Developer Plus (TUD+), our premium membership for property professionals. Click here to learn more.

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Thu 14 Dec 23

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ConstructionRalph NicholsonThu 14 Dec 23

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