ABC Home Front - Redefining density
Date: Sep 23, 2025
Category: Insights
Surry Hills Village
At a time when pressures on housing in Australia are at an all-time high, how can the future of housing be more focused on community and connection? At ASPECT Studios, we believe that increased housing density can mean increased resilience and vibrancy, but only if it is accompanied by improved access to greenery, community infrastructure, and opportunities for social connection.
This is among the questions posed by the final episode of ABC Radio National’s The Home Front, a series that explores the state of housing in Australia. Sacha Coles, Global Design Director for ASPECT Studios, participated in the episode by sharing his perspective on how Australian cities can be more focused on inclusivity.
In this lightly edited and abridged discussion with host Anthony Burke, Sacha explained how ASPECT Studios uses each project as an attempt to improve the human experience. Housing, he argues, has to be about more than the individual lot: the shared spaces between them are just as, if not more, important.
Berry Square
Victoria Harbour Precinct
In this series we’ve been talking about how higher density living is one of the key solutions to our current problem - would you agree?
I do agree, but only if we redefine what density actually means. Density can't just about stacking more people into buildings: it’s got to be talking about how we design the shared spaces in between. So, when density comes with access to greenery, community infrastructure, and opportunities for daily connections, then it becomes something vibrant and resilient.
Of course, when done badly you are left with the feeling of compression and isolation. Done well, through good urban design, it’s generous.
This is where parks, streets, and open spaces are critical. They can’t be treated as afterthoughts. Parks will need to be understood as essential urban infrastructure, and designed and delivered up front: they are just as important as transport, water, or energy systems are for our cities because they cool the city, hold stormwater, support biodiversity, and improve mental health.
Without them, higher density simply doesn’t work.
Of course, when done badly you are left with the feeling of compression and isolation. Done well, through good urban design, it’s generous.
This is where parks, streets, and open spaces are critical. They can’t be treated as afterthoughts. Parks will need to be understood as essential urban infrastructure, and designed and delivered up front: they are just as important as transport, water, or energy systems are for our cities because they cool the city, hold stormwater, support biodiversity, and improve mental health.
Without them, higher density simply doesn’t work.
One Central Park
How do you do this well?
We do this well by designing the supporting infrastructure at two scales at the large scale. It’s about designing a “green grid” - a connected network of green spaces alongside the built street grid.
Having said that, large new parks in city centres are rare. Cities are built out, and often the only way is up, so the economic model is just not there to create new ones. The challenge is to create smaller, distributed green spaces that weave through neighbourhoods - pocket parks, parklets, rooftops, and reimagined streetscapes.
These act as stepping stones of greenery, making nature accessible within a five-minute walk of everyone’s front door.
We also have to demand more from each space. A park today in a dense environment can’t just be a lawn with benches. It has to be multifunctional: a playspace, a flood basin, a biodiversity corridor, and an event space all in one. In dense cities, every square metre of open space matters, it must work harder and smarter.
That’s the future of density done well
Having said that, large new parks in city centres are rare. Cities are built out, and often the only way is up, so the economic model is just not there to create new ones. The challenge is to create smaller, distributed green spaces that weave through neighbourhoods - pocket parks, parklets, rooftops, and reimagined streetscapes.
These act as stepping stones of greenery, making nature accessible within a five-minute walk of everyone’s front door.
We also have to demand more from each space. A park today in a dense environment can’t just be a lawn with benches. It has to be multifunctional: a playspace, a flood basin, a biodiversity corridor, and an event space all in one. In dense cities, every square metre of open space matters, it must work harder and smarter.
That’s the future of density done well
When you’re designing a city or urban area, what are the key things you focus on to make it a great place to live?
Three things are central. Ecology: this is about how the city breathes, shades, cools, and manages water. This is about reading the landscape to provide these outcomes.
Then there's designing for people: how easily you can move, meet, rest, and participate in public life.
And thirdly, culture: how the deep histories of place, especially Indigenous knowledge, are woven visibly into the landscape.
But increasingly, we also need to think about vertical greenery. As ground space becomes more contested and scarce, landscapes have to climb: I’m talking about things like accessible green roofs and rooftop farms.
At the same time, streets themselves must evolve into something more like a linear park - shaded, walkable, cyclable, and planted, with low speed limits where possible for safety.
The city of the future won’t separate “nature” from “infrastructure”, it will fuse them.
Then there's designing for people: how easily you can move, meet, rest, and participate in public life.
And thirdly, culture: how the deep histories of place, especially Indigenous knowledge, are woven visibly into the landscape.
But increasingly, we also need to think about vertical greenery. As ground space becomes more contested and scarce, landscapes have to climb: I’m talking about things like accessible green roofs and rooftop farms.
At the same time, streets themselves must evolve into something more like a linear park - shaded, walkable, cyclable, and planted, with low speed limits where possible for safety.
The city of the future won’t separate “nature” from “infrastructure”, it will fuse them.
How do you make a city that is open to everyone, including the young and the elderly?
It comes down to designing for comfort and dignity across all ages. Shaded seats where older people can rest, playful landscapes where children can explore freely, safe and generous streets where parents feel encouraged and comfortable to walking with prams.
The magic is when these aren’t separated but shared. When grandparents and kids are in the same space, creating intergenerational public life.
The smaller, distributed green spaces I mentioned earlier - pocket parks, shady plazas, reimagined streets - are especially good at this, because they sit close to where people actually live and move, rather than being “destinations” you must travel to.
The magic is when these aren’t separated but shared. When grandparents and kids are in the same space, creating intergenerational public life.
The smaller, distributed green spaces I mentioned earlier - pocket parks, shady plazas, reimagined streets - are especially good at this, because they sit close to where people actually live and move, rather than being “destinations” you must travel to.
One Darling Island
How do you make it inclusive for all abilities?
Accessibility unfortunately is often only treated as compliance - ramps, lifts, handrails - these are important - but inclusion is deeper than that.
It’s about designing places where every person, whatever their ability, feels they belong. That means that there is sensory richness - sound, smell, touch - not just visual spectacle.
It means that places are well lit, legible, and intuitive to navigate.
The ultimate test is: does someone feel comfortable in this place to linger, join in, participate? We want the answer to be yes.
It’s about designing places where every person, whatever their ability, feels they belong. That means that there is sensory richness - sound, smell, touch - not just visual spectacle.
It means that places are well lit, legible, and intuitive to navigate.
The ultimate test is: does someone feel comfortable in this place to linger, join in, participate? We want the answer to be yes.
NewQuay Central Park
What do you imagine the future of home could look like, if done well? Paint me a picture.
I imagine the home of the future as more than being within the four walls of an apartment or house. The future dwelling will spill outwards into shared courtyards, community gardens, shaded streets, and local parks.
You might grow herbs on your balcony, share produce from a rooftop farm, or you might bump into neighbours in a pocket park the size of three car bays.
In this picture the private and the communal blur. Parks aren’t just recreational amenities, they’re part of the home experience .
They’re cooling systems, biodiversity corridors, cultural stages, and places of gathering.
Streets are linear green corridors , not just traffic corridors.
And The city has become an ecological network, with nature woven into its very fabric.
If we get this right, the future of home is both intimate and expansive at the same time: your private refuge connected to a generous, shared, and living city.
You might grow herbs on your balcony, share produce from a rooftop farm, or you might bump into neighbours in a pocket park the size of three car bays.
In this picture the private and the communal blur. Parks aren’t just recreational amenities, they’re part of the home experience .
They’re cooling systems, biodiversity corridors, cultural stages, and places of gathering.
Streets are linear green corridors , not just traffic corridors.
And The city has become an ecological network, with nature woven into its very fabric.
If we get this right, the future of home is both intimate and expansive at the same time: your private refuge connected to a generous, shared, and living city.
