War on the Homefront: Paris-style apartment blocks to solve Sydney’s housing crisis

Inspired by the overhaul of Paris in the 1800s, Chris Minns wants a rapid-fire rollout of four-storey apartment blocks to revolutionise development in Sydney and help solve the housing crisis. WATCH the second episode of The War on the Homefront here.

Inspired by the overhaul of Paris in the 1800s, Chris Minns wants a rapid-fire rollout of three- to four-storey apartment blocks to revolutionise development in Sydney and help solve the housing crisis.

The Premier told The Daily Telegraph his plan includes the delivery “at scale” of mid-size complexes that have a “commonality of design”, revealing that the Building Commissioner recently presented “really exciting” concepts to the state government.

It’s understood such blueprints would have the potential to be fast-tracked through the planning system as Macquarie St aims to lift new home supply across NSW from 48,000 to 75,000 a year.

Mr Minns has taken inspiration from the historic Haussmann-era apartment buildings in Paris.

And to counter the concerns of communities and councils that are sceptical about increased density, another plank in the strategy involves enlisting the private sector to create an “online pattern book” of the best examples of existing mid-size developments in Sydney. Projects higher than six storeys are not eligible for consideration.

During an in-depth exclusive interview for the War on the Homefront mini-series, the Premier said “three- and four-storey walk-up apartments … are right throughout Paris” and other global cities “but have largely dropped off the built environment in Sydney and we need them.”

Mr Minns said “model developments … make sense. They are used right across the world, all the way back to Napoleon III … where the Haussmann design was effectively instituted across Paris.

During his 18-year reign, Napoleon III undertook the complete reconstruction of Paris.

Mr Minns says commonality of design is pleasing to the eye. Picture: Justin Lloyd

“Humans like that because looking at a street full of terrace houses or Haussmann-era Paris streets or boulevards is attractive on the eye.”

Streets with a lot of variation weren’t as pleasing, he said.

“It’s a bit like looking at a face full of cracked teeth,” the Premier claimed.

Mr Minns said Building Commissioner David Chandler’s work could assist with increasing housing supply in two ways.

“Number one, if you’ve got commonality of design and the public can see that what’s being built is beautiful, modern, functional, large windows, great opportunities for people to live in that community it will build I believe community support for more urban density,” Mr Minns said.

“Number two: it means if you are looking at a builder who’s an entrepreneur, who might be a tradie, who are at the moment is building freestanding houses but wants to make the leap to more dense buildings and more density, if there’s a common design it’s easier for them to skill-up and scale up quicker rather than having to go to draftsmen or architects and effectively reinvent the wheel for every individual job.”

Paris is characterised by rows of cream-coloured apartment blocks built in the 1800s.

Mr Chandler is on leave and could not be contacted.

Separately, NSW Government Architect Abbie Galvin has asked the Property Council, Planning Institute and Institute of Architects to come up with a shortlist of the most attractive mid-size developments in Sydney to help win support for increased density.

The Property Council’s NSW executive director Katie Stevenson said the aim of the “online pattern book” was to show “mums and dads” that “these sorts of things are not so scary and not a threat.”

Ms Stevenson, who was previously the chief of staff to Liberal planning minister Rob Stokes, said: “I studied (urban design) in Copenhagen. They’ve got consistently five-storey development. That is a scale like Paris and like many of the cities we as Australians travel overseas to visit and find really vibrant and exciting and pleasant to wander around in.

“These cities are medium density. They aren’t super-high density,” Ms Stevenson said.

“People don’t want to see a lot of change in their local neighbourhoods but they also want their kids and their grandkids to be able to (afford to) live close to home.”