The Livable Housing Design Standard applies to all new Class 1a and Class 2 buildings. Class 1a buildings are detached houses, row houses, terraces, townhouses and villa units. Class 2 buildings are apartment buildings and the design requirements apply inside the apartment. Public access requirements cover the public areas. To aid practitioners, the Australian Building Codes Board has produced a Livable Housing Handbook.
The Livable Housing Design Standard sets out minimum requirements for mainstream dwellings.
The title, ‘Livable Housing Design’ comes from Livable Housing Australia’s voluntary guidelines. The features in these guidelines form the basis of the mandatory requirements, which are similar to Livable Housing Australia’s ‘silver level’.
The Livable Housing Design Handbook aims to help practitioners understand the relevant sections of the building code. These are Part G7 of NCC Volume One, Part H8 of NCC Volume Two, and the ABCB Standard for Livable Housing Design.
The Handbook covers design issues in generic terms and does not provide specific compliance advice. It aims to assist practitioners develop solutions to comply with the NCC requirements.
The intent of livable housing design is “to ensure that housing is designed to meet the needs of the community, including older people and those with a mobility-related disability.”
The appendices have examples of bathroom layouts and a guide for meeting compliance with the NCC.
Going beyond the Livable Housing standard
The Australian Building Codes Board has also produced a guide for going beyond the minimum standard. The voluntary standard is generally based on Livable Housing Australia’s “Gold level”. These features provide a greater level of livability across the lifespan for more people, and go beyond the “silver level”. Consequently, exceeding the minimum mandatory requirements will still achieve compliance.
This additional set of non-mandatory technical provisions will better meet the needs of the community.
Australian homes are some of the largest in the world and the features in the voluntary standard should not be difficult to achieve.
Extensions and major renovations to existing homes will be based on state or territory requirements to comply with the standard. For example, if the works require a council development application.
New advisory committee
A new advisory committee to support implementation of the new standard has been set up by the Australian Building Codes Board. The committee brings together representatives of user groups, advocates, design professionals, regulators and the construction industry. They will work through any emerging technical issues and help shape the information to help industry apply the standard.
Bringing a small group together, representing all the most interested groups, will help us develop workable consensus positions on any questions that arise.
Gary Rake, CEO Australian Building Codes Board.
For more, see the media release, Livable Housing Provisions in the National Construction Code.
The long road to Livable Housing
And the journey isn’t over yet. While the Livable Housing Standard is now in the national code, it is up to each state and territory to implement it. Victoria, Queensland, Tasmania, ACT and Northern Territory have agreed to implementation. South Australia has come late to the party but is now working on an implementation strategy.
Australian Network for Universal Housing Design (ANUHD) has been leading the charge for the reforms for twenty years. They believe that Western Australia could also sign up to implement the standard eventually. However, NSW has flatly refused to entertain the idea.
The livable housing story of citizen advocacy is documented in a conference paper.
Given that the industry likes to have consistency across the board, this could pose additional difficulties. For more on the history of Australia’s quest for accessible housing see these posts:
There are more posts in the Housing Design Policy section of this website.