What is this amenity of which you speak?

When architects talk about the quality of the amenity of residential projects, did you ever wonder what exactly they meant?

The dictionary definition of amenity is:

A desirable or useful feature or facility of a building or place.

It’s not a bad start, but it certainly doesn’t begin to describe the types of features or facilities considered when designing for good residential amenity, or describing it as such.

At Redshift, when designing for the residents of our projects, a broad range of features and facilities are taken into consideration to ensure a high level of amenity. These considerations range in scale from an urban scale and context, down to choices of materials and finishes.

(above) An interior of our Yagoona Apartments project demonstrating several aspects of good amenity.

Considerations of amenity is relevant for all design of the built environment, ranging from the design of the city through to the design of a house addition.

What, therefore, are the considerations when looking for good amenity at an urban scale? Initial considerations include access to facilities such as public transport, local shops and services, parks, schools, community and cultural facilities, hospitals, and so on. Transport is key, ideally the aforementioned facilities would be located within walking distance and particular emphasis is given to access to public transport, local shops and parks. Doing so provides a high quality of urban amenity. This represents a level of privileged access to amenities not generally available citywide (certainly not in Sydney), but we think should be. A more detailed consideration of amenity would take into account the quality of these facilities: regular timing of public transport services, good shops with a range of products and services, well maintained parks, and so on. It should be, for the most part, common sense that proximity to facilities and services affords good amenity. There is a more involved conversation about city planning to be had, but from this brief overview you should be getting the idea with regard to good amenity at the urban scale.

Whilst it may be argued that many of these features are beyond the control of a single entity, we should all be involved in the advancement of our city’s amenity through advocacy, lobbying and active engagement in government decisions involving the city. A consideration of the available local facilities is certainly taken into account, by government and developers alike, when locating and proposing larger scale developments such as apartment buildings. Amenity obviously and most definitely is a selling point for any residential development.

Whilst it may be difficult to control amenity beyond the site, amenity can certainly be considered and drive the design approach on a site and at the relatively smaller scale of the individual building. Broadly speaking, this entails an understanding of the living environment that is to be created, and could be divided into utility and comfort. Utility for the most part concerns itself with sizes and relationships of the rooms and outdoor spaces and how the residents are able to inhabit them. Comfort relates more to the environment that is created within and without the dwelling, the visual, thermal, aural, and natural environments – this is not an exhaustive list, just the principal ones. On occasions utility and comfort are inter-related.

Externally in an apartment building, for example, good amenity is provided by a generous shared open space, designed with good places to sit and/or play, attractive vegetation and trees that are in the ground as apposed to raised planters on a concrete slab. Within individual apartments private outdoor spaces (balconies, terraces or gardens directly off dwellings) should be designed to provide some privacy, would be large enough to furnish with space left over, have access to sun and views or outlook where available.

Interior considerations of amenity should take into account room sizing, relationships and environment. To have good amenity, rooms should be large enough to be reasonably furnished whilst allowing people space enough to circulate through the room with ease, but attention should also be given to their relationship to other rooms and the exterior. Access to natural light, direct sun and ventilation are extremely important in providing amenity, contributing to the thermal comfort of a room and contributing a positive psychological effect. Views out to courtyards, gardens, tree canopies, or to a more distant outlook are also very valuable wherever possible. Additional to these environmental comforts, privacy is important, both visual and aural. You don’t want to necessarily see or hear your neighbours or visa versa, this is an important consideration for amenity.

There are many many more detailed considerations, the aim was not to exhaustively list them all but to illustrate the less tangible aspects of what is meant by amenity. Hopefully this article has achieved that, should there be any glaring omissions please feel free to list them in the comments section. It is of course personal taste to some degree and we would be interested to hear what other people think.

Originally written by Michael Lewarne [Redshift]- republished by;