Evaluating design quality assessment of apartments in policy and practice

The importance and value of internal design quality in high density apartments has gained wide recognition globally. As many cities grapple with the complex issues presented by rising population numbers and urban-centric employment, increasing urban residential density is considered an important housing solution, while the compact liveability of these spaces is promoted to attract a globally mobile business market and associated workforce. In many places, the post-millennial apartment construction boom coincided with increasing pressure on housing in terms of affordability and financialisation of the housing product. As a result of these competing pressures, design quality as a phenomenon, concept and practice is complex and there is sustained concern about the quality of living that current apartment designs offer. The value of government intervention into design quality in apartments through Design Assessment Tools (DATs) and associated regulation has also been highly debated, with questions raised in the literature over the functions and limitations of quantitative and prescriptive tools. Additionally, questions remain about the process through which these tools are arrived at and the power and politics behind the values and rationalisations that shape their production. Despite recognition of the importance and complexity of design regulation in apartments, there is a lack of empirical testing and detailed understanding of how such tools operate and are produced. A nuanced understanding of the efficacy of DATs, including both the 'how' and 'why' of their functionalities, possibilities, limitations and expectations, is important to our understanding of how design quality in apartments can best be regulated and ensured in the public interest. This thesis aims to develop a nuanced and practical understanding of DATs and their contribution to improving design quality in apartments and, more generally, the built environment through addressing the main research question: 'how can design assessment tools support improve design quality in apartments?'

This thesis conducted case study research into quantitative DATs through a mixed methods approach. It focused on the experience of Melbourne, Australia as a city with a market-based economy that was at the forefront internationally of the burgeoning, post-millennial apartment investment industry. The research charts the development and functionality of the government interventions into internal apartment design quality, as implemented through the Better Apartments Design Standards (BADS). Empirical testing of the BADS was complemented by an understanding of the different approach in London, UK as a city with a long and varied history of DATs. This testing demonstrated that DATs could inform the design quality experienced by residents in apartments, and it also contributed to a new understanding of the complex limitations of DATs. It was found that quantitative tools could capture qualitative elements of design to evaluate a holistic definition of design quality; however, this occurred via a surrogate means of measurement. This reseach also contributed the new knowledge that the act of highlighting and protecting some elements of design quality, results in those not included in the tool being more vulnerable to a reduction in quality in order to meet the increased requirements within the same yield parameters. The empirical testing lastly illustrated that DATs have a limited ability to improve design quality indirectly by impacting the context in which they operated, like encouraging developers to better value design. DATs were found to be not the only aspect influencing how developers incorporate design quality, but instead one of an array of factors that affect outcomes.

A qualitative inquiry into the process of producing Melbourne's DAT revealed the exercise of power and politics in shaping the decision-making environment for the tool, both in its introduction and then in the details adopted in the standards in BADS. This research corroborates Flyvbjerg's concept that rationalisations align typically non-affiliated sectors to fit the privileged rationality. It also contributed new knowledge on how power relations responded to threats to the dominant rationalisation on apartment design regulation, by joining and building on arguments, in this case building housing affordability issues into arguments against the introduction of a DAT. This expanded the appeal of the rationalisation to broader coalitions and alliances which legitimised industry critique of BADS beyond simply developers protecting their own self-interest. The BADS case also illustrated that, while not automatically awarded power, structural factors better facilitated power for some actors by empowering some voices while muting others. The need to foster stakeholder support for the DAT policy overall empowered developers' negotiations on the details of the BADS' apartment size and room depth standards to better support industry viability, despite this also having the effect of reducing the tool's ability to improve the design quality experienced by the resident.

Through a reflection on the distinctions and correlations between these two approaches, a more nuanced evaluation of DATs is made possible. This thesis concludes that although DATs are political instruments and are not produced through evidence, they should not be dismissed as irrelevant or without worth in improving design quality. Their ability to directly improve design quality by detecting and preventing apartment designs that were unliveable for the resident ensures that DATs have an important role in the planning policy on design quality in apartments, despite their complex limitations. Additionally, this thesis demonstrates that, alongside a better technical understanding of DATs, there is a growing need for a greater understanding by planners, policy makers and practitioners of the influence of power and politics on the production of regulatory tools and the consequent efficacy of these tools.