As construction costs rise, soulless white-cube housing is becoming the norm in many cities. Here, new-build residents share how they’ve added character to their homes
You’ll recognise the hallmarks. Banners with renders of utopian urban dwellings – a marriage of contemporary lines, streamlined surfaces, open-plan living spaces and floor-to-ceiling glass, alongside manicured green spaces and lifestyle imagery of young professionals and families. Not necessarily the vision of a quarter-acre block with a white picket fence but in urban centres the Australian dream of home ownership is being recast in the form of white-cube, new-build apartments.
In the US, “5-over-1” buildings are fast becoming ubiquitous, while in Europe, where apartments have always been smaller, there’s a rise in shared-space models with communal kitchens and amenities. Shanaka Herath, a senior lecturer at the school of built environment at the University of Technology Sydney, says: “We know that land costs have been rising, construction costs have been rising, so what the builders do is that they build smaller and more affordable units.”
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As construction costs rise, soulless white-cube housing is becoming the norm in many cities. Here, new-build residents share how they’ve added character to their homesYou’ll recognise the hallmarks. Banners with rende...
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