Building for Living: Sekisui House and the Case for Thoughtful Density

Turner director Dan Szwaj says Australian apartments have a problem. They look the same, feel the same and offer the same living spaces regardless of who moves in. A downsizer with decades of furniture faces the same 4m-x-4m living space as a first home buyer starting fresh. “We should be designing apartments in a way that we’d love to live in them as well. It’s not just a commodity or a product,” Szwaj says. “We need to think about our designs as a place you want to live in.” That distinction matters because the disconnect between what gets built and what people need keeps growing, Szwaj tells The Urban Developer . Standard development models push amenity into single towers, treat landscape as an afterthought dictated by setback rules and maximise building footprints to hit floor space ratio targets. Szwaj says the approach delivers housing but doesn’t deliver homes that people want to buy. At The Orchards at Norwest, 39km north-west of the Sydney CBD, Turner and developer Sekisui House tried rethinking density from the ground up to create apartments people want while maintaining commercial returns. Szwaj has a term for it: thoughtful density. The key, he says, is making decisions about where density goes before anyone draws a single apartment plan. Council rules spark design rethink Lumia, the latest stage of The Orchards development, came about from an unusual planning requirement imposed by The Hills Shire Council. The council mandated specific mixes of small, medium and large apartments through LEP controls rather than offering guidelines. ▲ Turner director Dan Szwaj: We need to think about designs as a place you want to live in. Szwaj says the requirement created an opportunity to reconsider housing needs across different parts of Sydney where affordability and expectations vary significantly. The research process combined demographic studies with conversations with staff and people living in the area. The team identified a market emerging around the new Metro station, which was under construction when planning began in 2013 and 2014. Downsizers wanted lower maintenance properties but retained expectations for entertaining space and storage. Aspirational buyers priced out of inner-city locations saw long-term investment opportunity. Rethinking density, retaining landscape Masterplanning for The Orchards, which runs from Fairway Drive to Spillway Drive, gave Turner and Sekisui House control over density distribution across the entire site. Rearranged massing gave the team an opportunity to create a linear park up to 25m wide, which exceeded the 5m DCP setback requirement. They were also able to keep about 900 existing trees. “That changes the perception of density, where it’s not just about building a maximum footprint,” Szwaj says. “The ability to rearrange density meant we could respond cleverly to some sensitivities in the area.” Strangers Creek, which runs through the site, was rehabilitated rather than treated as drainage infrastructure. Turner engaged Sydney Water to understand riparian zones and setbacks. The elevated boardwalk creates a nature reserve experience for residents and locals, though the investment was not mandated by planning controls. ▲ The linear park at The Orchards varies in width up to 25m, significantly exceeding the 5m DCP setback requirement. Shared amenity changing economics The Orchards comprises 12 to 14 buildings being built over seven stages. The masterplan approach meant Sekisui House could distribute different types of communal amenity across the development rather than concentrating facilities in individual towers. Lumia has the pool and outdoor areas. The next stage under construction includes a gym, indoor swimming pool and wellness facilities. Other stages feature rooftop terraces that residents from other buildings can access. This shared amenity model fundamentally changes development economics and helps the project stack up, Szwaj says. Single-building developments typically face a choice between providing limited amenity or investing heavily in facilities that increase construction costs and ongoing strata fees. The masterplan approach allowed the developer to spread capital investment across multiple stages while delivering greater diversity of facilities than any single tower could accommodate. Residents at Lumia access not just their building’s pool but the gym and wellness centre in the adjacent stage, creating a resort-style amenity offering without the cost burden falling on a single development. This works because single ownership across all stages enables cross-access agreements that would be difficult to negotiate between separate developers. Szwaj says this distribution model solves a commercial problem that has long constrained apartment developments. “There’s a whole diversity of residential amenity which, if you’re just doing one development, is almost impossible to cram in without compromising it or making the costs higher in terms of affordability,” Szwaj says. ▲ Lumia’s central courtyard houses the pool and outdoor areas and adjacent stages have gym and wellness facilities that all residents can access. The model requires upfront masterplanning coordination and staged delivery but the commercial benefits go beyond construction cost management. Buyers in later stages can visit amenities before purchasing, which makes off-the-plan sales easier compared to selling facilities that exist only on paper. Owners of apartments in earlier stages also benefit from value uplift as more amenity comes online across the broader precinct. The approach to integrating amenity without compromising yield focuses on using spaces where apartments would face privacy or topography challenges. Lumia’s ground floor communal spaces are in areas with good sunlight but have privacy constraints. The steep topography along Spillway Drive, which changes up to two storeys in level, allowed for double-height lobby entries that don’t reduce apartment numbers. Mail rooms are arranged to create what Szwaj describes as social bumping spaces where residents can chat informally rather than rushing through awkward lift rides. Imperial, the first stage of The Orchards, includes elevated vertical gardens with trees visible from lift lobbies on each floor, creating connection to nature throughout the building. Designing for how people want to live “Some of these design ideas are quite small,” Szwaj says. “They’re not massive moves, but they’re a sensitive understanding of how people interact, where people want to interact and then providing them with that opportunity.” Individual apartment layouts respond to downsizer expectations. Living areas exceed the ADG minimum 4m-x-4m to accommodate furniture from previous houses. Kitchens include butler’s pantries and walk-in laundries replace typical laundry cupboards. Flexi rooms satisfy contemporary housing patterns where adult children remain at home longer and multiple household members work remotely. Four-bedroom apartments appear throughout the building rather than being restricted to penthouse levels. ▲ “The ability to rearrange density meant we could respond cleverly to some sensitivities in the area,” Szwaj says. “The apartment needs to accommodate working from home, as well as different people and their friends in terms of spaces within an apartment, which is really hard if you just go for a standard layout,” Szwaj says. The success of this thinking is proven by sales, Szwaj says. Lumia completed early this year and is fully sold and occupied. The development attracted first home buyers, downsizers and investors. Community involvement the key The project required community engagement before approval, so Szwaj and Sekisui House representatives visited neighbouring properties to understand resident concerns. Height increases at Lumia were positioned to maintain solar access for existing properties. Szwaj says the approach succeeds approximately 95 per cent of the time. Council backed the project almost from the outset. The community-first approach drove outcomes beyond standard planning controls that benefit future residents and align with planning authority objectives. Masterplanning at The Orchards prioritised street networks and pedestrian connections before building placement. Building envelopes in the masterplan maintain flexibility through what Szwaj describes as loose-fit arrangements that give development teams room to adjust designs as projects evolve. “The buildings, in a way, come last in that setup. They’re super important but they’re not the first thing we put on paper,” Szwaj says. Turner applies similar principles across project types, from affordable housing to market-rate developments. The approach centres on site-specific responses rather than templated solutions. “You need to be responsive to the place you’re developing in and build upon those unique qualities,” Szwaj says. “One solution doesn’t fit all.”

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