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Guidance for Apartments Print

1. Introduction 2. Site Design 3. Placing the Building 4. Street to Front Door 5. Outdoor Spaces 6. Accommodating Cars 7. The Building

Apartments / Details / Placing the Building /

2Building placement

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Desi​gn Checklist

  1. The development has a clear network of routes and spaces within the site that are shaped by the creation of a strong relationship between the building and wider neighbourhood and clearly defined private and communal space 
  2. The buildings are located to contribute to a positive streetscape character, with building frontages and entries onto the street
  3. The design responds positively to the existing site conditions, such as views, orientation, natural features and surrounding buildings 
  4. The building placement demonstrates a clear public front and private back
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​​​​​​Careful attention to building placement can also produce multiple environmental benefits; including enhanced solar access, increased permeability and effective stormwater mitigation, and increased area for planting or productive gardens.​

Better Design Practice

A clear network of routes and spaces

The building location should enhance or establish a clear hierarchy of roads, paths and other ways of moving around and through the site by:
  • ensuring buildings address the street
  • new roads or lanes are introduced to increase connectivity through larger sites
  • creating 'through' site links to improve connections through the block, where they provide a more accessible route or easier way to walk, and where they work with the overall street network. These must be carefully designed. It should be clear whether they are public or private, and they should be overlooked, clearly signposted, well-lit and safe.​
  • ensuring good connections, a clear layout and internal way-finding for all routes of movement.​

The design and layout of buildings should make it clear what each space around the building is intended for. Routes for movement and whether spaces are private or public should also be clear from the design and layout. Well designed developments do not need multiple signs to tell visitors how to move around the site.

The location of the building should allow for open spaces to be integrated into the overall development, to meet the functions of the building and occupants’ needs.

Positive streetscape character

Where streets are to be edged and defined by buildings, design solutions could include:
  • aligning buildings to the street on streets that run east-west​;
  • using courtyards on streets that run north-south, and using L-shaped configurations with increased setbacks on north-facing side boundaries.​

Enhance personal safety and perceptions of safety, and minimise potential for crime and vandalism by allowing apartments and other facilities to overlook streets and open spaces. This is especially important on routes to and from schools, public transport stops and other routes used at night

Respond to the existing conditions of the site

The building location should maximise opportunities to capture important local and strategic views, while mitigating any negative aspects of the site such as visual intrusions or noise.

Optimise and enhance the natural resources of the site by using and protecting natural features such as planting, topography and waterways.

Public fronts and private backs:

All buildings should have a public front and a private back. It is better to align buildings with public streets or open space and create a defined street edge, and to maximise back to back distances with other buildings. This pattern of development allows for ‘perimeter blocks’ which reinforce the street edge and maximise the available open space within the centre of the block.

On sites with limited road frontage, the accessway or lane becomes the equivalent of a public street, and this should be defined as the public front of the building. On these and any other awkwardly shaped sites, it is important to make it clear to the public how the building and spaces around it can be accessed.

Apartment buildings should not expose the ‘back’ of a building onto the ‘front’ of an adjacent building.