How two classes of home owners are being created
Urban planners in Sydney are raising concerns that modern high-rise apartment designs restrict natural ventilation due to safety-focused window restrictors. The Committee for Sydney is calling for building codes to be updated to measure ventilation based on effective opening area rather than sash size.
Why it matters
This highlights a growing conflict between building safety regulations and the liveability and health standards of high-density urban housing.
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Share A A A It is called the tiny window problem, and it is a pane in the glass.
The spread of sash windows in high-rise apartment blocks across Sydney and other capital cities is limiting ventilation and threatening health and wellbeing, says Estelle Grech, an urban planner and director of planning, fairness and equity with the Committee for Sydney.
Estelle Grech of the Committee for Sydney next to a window in the Boronia development in Norwest Quarter. Awnings are the default in high-rise apartments, but they restrict the opening to 125mm – just 12.5% of the sash area is actually open to fresh air. Sam Mooy Under the building code, a room must have ventilation – via windows or doors – equivalent to 5 per cent of the floor space.
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