ACT opens national contest for pre-approved missing middle homes

On 26 October, the Canberra Times reported that the ACT government had opened a national design competition calling for a Canberra House Pattern Book: a library of pre-qualified house designs that could be built without a fresh development application. Architects, building designers and architecture students across Australia are invited to enter, with expressions of interest closing 4 December.

The idea leans on a model the territory has used before. Much of mid-century Canberra was filled out with small three-bedroom homes built from a limited set of standard plans, the Department of Works’ 400 series, rather than one-off architecture on every block. Steel said pre-designed homes were used to grow the capital efficiently in the post-war years. The new pattern book is meant to revive that idea for today’s “missing middle”: dual occupancies, tri-occupancies, townhouses and terraces built to the ACT’s Missing Middle Housing Design Guide.

Planning Minister Chris Steel, launching the competition, said it would deliver “a range of top quality, sustainable, and affordable home designs that can be built without the need for a DA.” ACT Government Architect Catherine Townsend said the program is meant to expand housing choice while fitting the character of established neighbourhoods.

The competition follows planning law changes the ACT Legislative Assembly passed the week before the launch, which streamline smaller subdivisions, allow secondary residences on single-dwelling leases without a Crown lease variation, and simplify minor lease changes. Steel tied those changes to quicker approvals for missing middle projects.

Why it matters

A pre-approved pattern book would let a landowner or builder pick an already-vetted design and build to it without lodging a fresh DA for that house, the same logic that let the old Department of Works plans spread across whole suburbs last century. It follows the Legislative Assembly’s own planning law changes the week before, which streamline smaller subdivisions and minor lease variations. For architects and building designers, the competition is a chance to get a design into standard use territory-wide rather than built once on a single block.

The numbers

Expressions of interest close on 4 December, and the process is open to architects, building designers and architecture students. About 16 professional entrants and about six architecture student entrants are expected to progress to a second stage, where they will develop full house designs for public exhibition. The Canberra Times and ArchitectureAU reports do not state a cost for the program or the value of the prizes, though ArchitectureAU says a monetary prize is offered to two Master of Architecture student winners.

What’s next

Selected entrants move to the design stage after the EOI window closes, with the competition seeking cost-efficient designs that reflect Canberra’s character, and the resulting houses to be publicly exhibited. Winning designs then go through detailed design and refinement work for inclusion in the Canberra House Pattern Book, alongside the other planning changes already through the Assembly. The reports give no date for when pattern book designs will be available for builders to use. A separate report this week covers CBD offices sitting empty while a federal department pays rent on them.

The Australian Developer