Communities stretching from the Sunshine Coast down to Northern NSW are growing at steady rate. While there are some patterns of increased built density (i.e bigger houses and less open space) social density has remained somewhat stagnant.

Local councils are beginning to appreciate the value in dwellings and block types that increase social density. Tweed Shire Council has recently released the Small Lot Housing Code that allows and encourages smaller residential lot sizes and higher density development.

This project represents the first small lot (200m2) housing proposal in the Tweed Shire.

Working within the planning constraints this scheme proposes twelve 200m2 lots and twelve new dwellings (single and double storey).

We saw that incorporating outdoor spaces that are usable and private was critical to building compact dwellings in this environment. The use of build to boundary walls was a key strategy used to maintain meaningful outdoor space.

This project was undertaken as part of a design collaboration with Aspect Architecture.