WATERLOO: Refurbishing the Matavai and Turanga towers could cost around half as much as rebuilding the same number of new apartments, according to a study by the not-for-profit architecture firm OFFICE.
Its proposal is to add prefabricated modules containing a bedroom and balcony on each corner of the buildings, turning bedsits into one-bedroom apartments.
For the Marton, Solander, Banks and Cook high-rise buildings, OFFICE suggests adding new balconies to the exteriors while internally breaking each building into three serviced by new external lifts. These changes would cost about 63% of a new build.
For all buildings the costs include service upgrades, new kitchens and bathrooms with over 80% reduction in energy usage through double-glazed windows, insulation as well as heating and cooling upgrades.
The community pushed for these buildings to be upgraded in the 2012 redevelopment plans. One of the 2019 Waterloo redevelopment options retained Matavai and Turanga and the City of Sydney plan proposed adaption rather than knockdown and rebuild.
The recent study underlines the feasibility of such an approach with the possibility of infill housing around the existing buildings.
The current Waterloo model delivers 30% new social housing paid for by the rest of the redevelopment. The same approach in North and Central needs a development of 4,200 units to replace the existing 1,260 high-rise units.
On OFFICE’s refurbishment figures, no loss of units is achieved at the cost of 790 new homes and so the total development would only need to be around 2,630 units to fund the upgrade.
OFFICE’s infill proposal at about 3,000 exceeds that required to make the Homes NSW model financially viable but it would not necessarily meet Homes NSW’s “deconcentrating” objective.
One weakness in the report is the proposed relocation cost savings. With the Waterloo redevelopment expecting to relocate tenants into newly built housing by the time the high-rises are developed, there seems no basis for the suggested cost savings in Waterloo.
You can download the full report here.
You can also read the launch reflections of Waterloo resident Catherine Skipper on her almost 10-year Waterloo redevelopment journey here.
Homes NSW say they will not look at redeveloping the high-rises for at least 10 years.
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Geoff Turnbull is the Spokesperson for REDWatch, which supported the OFFICE study grant from the City of Sydney.
