We’ve seen the government pour billions of dollars into the economy through handouts to companies and individuals. Even that we’re having a debate about what used to be called Newstart (unemployment benefits now renamed “JobSeeker” to match with JobKeeper – a special Covid allowance given to companies whose revenues had dropped significantly due to the virus) is cause for celebration.
But there’s more.
We’ve seen state governments try to address the problem of cost-of-living notably, for example, in New South Wales – Australia’s most populous state and where (in Sydney) the nation’s highest housing prices are to be found – under, surprisingly, a Liberal-National Coalition government. The conservatives are normally all for the working of the free market and for small government, but Gladys Berejiklian and her ministers and their officials have come up with a plan to include social housing in some new developments.
What’s now called the Waterloo Estate was called the Endeavour Estate when it was first opened in around 1980. Even the Queen of Tonga – who visited for the event – was impressed.
Or, at least, I imagine she was impressed.
She certainly looks happy.
She would’ve heard about elderly residents living in two new buildings, each with 29 identical floors serviced by two lifts. Here is a typical floor plan:
Each floor has eight flats. You can see that each floor has a community room (top of diagram, facing north) and also a shared drying room for laundry purposes. “The scheme provides for maximum open space between all buildings, with the accent on a landscaped, park environment for the elderly folk,” says an original promotional document made for publicity purposes by the NSW Housing Commission.
In such an environment folk – the patronising use of this outdated term is redolent with echoes of an era – must’ve had a good deal to celebrate:
Ground floor layout will emphasise a pleasant and welcome atmosphere with a spacious, well lit entrance foyer, and a large community-lounge room which can also be used for general entertainment.
Single units will have a bed/sitting room - with ample space for both bedroom and loungeroom furniture - a separate kitchen and a bathroom with laundry facilities. The lounge area will have a large, low-sill window allowing views outward from a sitting position. Features meeting the comfort and safety of the aged people will be incorporated in the detail design stages for the building and surrounding landscaped areas.
Also on the ground floor:
Public space comprising entrance foyer, lift lobby, lifts, letterbox area, corridors and office.
Fire escape stairs with separate external exits.
Large community lounge suitably furnished and with attached tea room and chair store. Planned for flexible community use.
Service rooms comprising public toilets, electrical switch room, pump room, cleaners rooms and garbage removal room.
Below is a plan of a double unit made by architects Stafford, Moore and Farrington. There’s one double unit on each floor – in the above image a double unit is shown at bottom-right, on the building’s south side.
“Double” is a bit confusing because it is still a one-bedroom unit. The word is used to mean that it is big enough for two people, though it only has 36 square metres of floor space. As you can see, in the plan shown below, to get to the bathroom you have to go through the bedroom. So, the units are pokey by today’s standards though at the time they were probably not unusual; the 2-bedroom 70s unit I lived in 15 years ago has about 75 square metres.
You can see how the design was also usual for its time in that the living/dining area is separated from the kitchen by a wall. More up-to-date units run both areas together to make an open-plan space for occupants to enjoy time together. The idea, now, of the cook working away behind a wall to make food for the guests is – unendurable.
But this is how it used to be done. Or else everyone would end up in the kitchen, for example at parties.
That would make a good pop song! Celebration is warranted on account of the NSW government’s generous plan to continue the tradition of using this site in Redfern/Waterloo for social housing. Long may it continue – and at other sites, too.
Good one, Gladys.
Mixing regular units with social housing in this way is called “scattersite” housing, and it is the preferred way for people who need financial support to dwell in the community.
The problem with dedicated high-rise blocks of units filled with one type of tenant being that you tend to get dysfunction, vandalism, and worse.
But not always. The Sirius development at the Rocks (which the government has said it will keep, and not pull down) never had such problems, though it was, until recent changes were made, always used for social housing.
Wouldn’t it be great if, for the opening of our new development, the government scheduled a visit by the current Tongan monarch? The new development is to be constructed around a new railway station to be built in Waterloo as part of a line stretching from the city’s northwest to its southwest – through the central business district.
It’d be wonderful if the new could contain other echoes of the old.
Let’s put on our thinking caps.
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