Apartment living is a key pillar of government plans to ease the housing crisis by densifying well-connected parts of Australia's largest cities. But some have questioned the viability of the plans, saying the current stock of apartments was poorly suited for families.
In the cramped eleventh-storey bedroom in Collingwood in Melbourne's inner north-east, it was playtime for Brielle Pope's toddler, Evie."So this is Evie's room, which has been a constant game of Tetris since she was born," she said.
When the only elevator in her tower was out-of-order for about a month, Ms Pope had few options but to lug the toddler and her elderly 13-year-old dog up about a dozen flights of stairs — or leave. The number of occupied apartments has grown by nearly 60 per cent since 2006, and the recent rate of growth has outpaced townhouses and houses.
Other studies have found many families were theoretically happy trading backyards for quality communal space — but in practice, they end up making more significant compromises. During a study that asked families to photograph problematic aspects of apartment design, the academic said she was overwhelmed with pictures of cluttered living areas and bleak communal space.A study participant described this communal space as hard and unfriendly to children. A participant called this photo the "hallway of death".
"The current apartment stocks really seem to be tailored to people who are just moving through that apartment — not really seen as a home," she said.Isabel Robinson has watched as friends and peers moved their young families from apartments to larger homes further afield."Here" was a three-bedroom, art deco flat in what Ms Robinson called downtown St Kilda.
"Often I would put her down to sleep and I would look out the back door, and someone I'd never met would be smoking outside her room."
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