Australia is experiencing a period of elevated demand for housing, and supply is not keeping up. Population growth, the size of households, and consumer preferences for housing types has all impacted on demand. The shortfall of new market supply adds to the already significant undersupply in the system impacting on affordability. In 2019, The City of Sydney launched a design competition to address these challenges. The intent of the challenge was to think about our existing attitudes and approaches to housing in positive new ways to come up with solutions that are replicable and scalable for use by the broader community. Stephen Varady discusses how this iterative competition process was designed to encourage collaboration amongst competitors to enhance strategic and innovative thinking.

Image from interview with Stephen Varady, City of Sydney website.

The City of Sydney Alternative Housing Ideas Challenge sought to uncover alternative housing strategies that may not have been previously considered in Australia. It encouraged strategic thinking and looking beyond the physical domain to include finance, zoning, urban land supply, management and ownership.

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