Last year the New South Wales (NSW) government in south-eastern Australia launched an international competition seeking designs for a new pattern book providing ready-made terrace and small-scale apartment block templates.The five winning designs will create a catalogue of pre-approved housing designs aimed primarily at developers and set to launch this summer. The authority hopes this book of off-the-shelf solutions will accelerate the delivery of low and mid-rise housing in areas where the need is greatest.The state governments key criteria included sustainability, functionality, adaptability, affordability and ability to respond to the unique Australian climate. But, crucially, high-quality and beautiful designs were also significant point scorers.AdvertisementAlthough the winning practices plus one student winner were ultimately all based in Australia or New Zealand, the contest itself piqued the interest of architects from around the world. Of the 212 applicants, five were British. Among them, Stirling Prize-winning Mae Architects, which was the only UK firm to make the 21-strong shortlist. The jury that assessed the submissions included Paul Karakusevic of UK practice Karakusevic Carson Architects. Source: Mae ArchitectsPerspective section of pattern book proposal by Mae ArchitectsWinning practices included Neeson Murcutt Neille and Sydney-based Other Architects.NSWs Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure said the winning designs would have access to a fast-track pathway for the delivery of more well-built homes sooner.In some ways the housing crisis in Australia mirrors our own. Prime minister Anthony Albaneses centre-left Labor government has vowed to build 1.2 million homes by 2030 only 300,000 less than our governments own hefty housing ambitions for the sameperiod.The idea of a pattern book is not new to the UK. It was used effectively by both the Victorians and Georgians and many of these thousands of homes still stand, much-loved, today. Yet the notion of a modern version that offers a quick route through planning red tape is turning heads as a possible solution for the 21st-century deliveryproblem.Advertisement Source: Neeson Murcutt NeilleNSW Pattern Book winner by Neeson Murcutt Neille, Finding Infinity and Monash Urban LabMaes founding director Alex Ely believes a pattern book based around good design principles and aspirations could be a game-changer for UK house-building provided it is delivered with a clear audience and specific aims in mind.The purpose of it has to be around fast-tracking approvals, speeding up the system, argues Ely. Developers would appreciate this as it would speed up returns on their investments. Ely says the NSW approach, which should fast-track permissions on sites currently bogged down in planning, could reopen the door to small to medium-sized developers and housebuilders. Since 1990, there has been a dramatic decline in these developers in the UK, from 15,000 to around 2,500 by October 2024, according to Insider Media.For the concept to work effectively, he adds, there would have to be an acknowledgement that a pattern book overrules certain other planning parameters [on the basis that its proposals] have been designed intelligently, and sensitively.Ely believes that if developers can use pre-approved designs to avoid their projects being stuck in the often arbitrary and gruelling planning process with its associated costs then even if they have to build something better than they usually would they will still do it. Source: Mae ArchitectsPattern modules by Mae ArchitectsDeborah Heenan, chief executive of the London Borough of Newhams in-house affordable housing arm, Populo Living, agrees that the reimagining of standardised house types by NSW offers a vision that could work equally well in the UK to deliver much-needed additional housing.But a snapshot of opinions from across the industry reveals that her positive reaction is far from the consensus in the UK.Pattern books are good for sites that are easy to develop, without complexities that demand bespoke solutions, says Mole Architects director Meredith Bowles. In reality we have pattern books already. The vast majority of housing approved is delivered by housebuilders using the same product across the country.Would it make a difference [to the numbers]? Very little, is my guess, and what would really make a difference [to communities] landscape, public realm, parking solutions, site layout, densification would remain untouched. Source: Spacecraft ArchitectsStreet elevation for pattern book housing by New Zealand-based Spacecraft ArchitectsNeil Murphy, co-founder of profit-with-purpose developer TOWN, is equally sceptical.He told the AJ that, hundreds of years on from the first pattern books, variety within a pattern is still a defining feature of a good street for manypeople.But, while he thinks a new initiative for pre-approved pattern-book housing might help at the margins, he argues that it risks focusing unduly on how buildings look over how places function the same problem, he insists, that the UK has had with its recent push for design codes.And while Murphy describes efforts to increase certainty within Englands discretionary planning system as laudable, he urges architects to consider the fate of the local development order. This potentially powerful tool for continental-style, rules-based, coded or pattern-book development has existed since 2004 but is scarcely used in a system that tends to prize control of process over quality or speed ofoutcome. Source: Andrew Burges ArchitectsVisualisation for pattern book housing by New South Wales-based Andrew Burges ArchitectsHawkins\Brown design consultant and project delivery lead Nigel Ostime says the firms own research points to [the pattern book] approach being unsuitable for the UK as a means to industrialise housing delivery.It is too prescriptive in terms of response to local styles and materials particularly if it is limited to five types, he insists. Moreover, it is difficult to see what benefit it would bring commercially without significant investment in and co-ordination of the supply chain at a time when there is little capital for such upfrontcosts.Ostime says, rather than pushing for standardised design solutions, housing providers should focus on sharing information and collaborating more effectively.He says co-operating to develop a strategic pipeline and working to create procurement routes that enable modern methods of construction would be a more effective solution.The trick is to balance standardisation and flexibility, he says. Too much standardisation will break thesystem. Source: Officer WoodsVisualisation of interior of pattern book home by Western Australia-based practice Officer WoodsPhilip Oldfield, head of school at University of New South Wales (UNSW) Built Environment, also has an issue with flexibility in patternbooks.The aim with a pattern book is to amalgamate some of the complex design and planning rules we have into an almost-ready-made series of designs, heexplains.A worthy aim. But Oldfield says the challenge with modern pattern books compared to the template designs historically used for largely empty sites subdivided into many plots is that many infill sites where multistorey apartments are being built are complex [and] have varied geometries and boundary conditions as well as differenttopographies.Its difficult to see how pre-made designs will be applied to the diversity of sites and climates we have in New South Wales.While Oldfield thinks a pattern book is unlikely to prove a game-changer for housing quality (if this is lost in the development process, its often due to value engineering reasons), he does believe it has the potential to provide more speed and certainty fordevelopers. Source: Other Architects/NMBWPerspective drawing for pattern book housing by Other Architects and NMBWBack in the UK, the design template notion is also being looked at by built environment charity the Kings Foundation (formerly the Princes Foundation). Its senior director, Ben Bolgar, is collaborating with Classical architect Ben Pentreath to develop a series of locally informed pattern books showcasing well-proportioned regional homes as part of his work on a government-funded project called the Regional Building Hubs (RBH) initiative.The pattern books sit within the initiatives wider placemaking mission to encourage beautiful places for sustainable communities and build on previous work by the Kings Foundation to develop catalogues, pattern books, and codes through its BIMBY (Beauty-In-My-Back-Yard) Housing Manuals. Bolgar says the RBH team has developed five house types, or chassis, for which details are already drawn up in a set of supply- chain-linked digital patent books.Digital twin software has been developed by Travis Perkins architect Lee Jackson in the form of a smart housebuilding platform called WholeHouse. This allows a provider to specify details such as cladding and window types with half a billion combinations of designs, which can be adjusted around the five chassis.You choose everything and you spec it according to your costs, says Bolgar. Then you press a button and it literally spits out 75 pages of working drawings, [and] the costs. Its designed before you go to site.Meanwhile, the RBH pattern books feed into the digital models to inform the actual designs, explains Bolgar.The pattern books set out urban types, building types, building elements and outline material specifications based on the foundations research of existing patterns and proportions in a given region. The idea is that you have a standard chassis, but it wears a regional overcoat in the same way that a Georgian house looks different in Edinburgh and Cornwall, explains Bolgar.He says the designs are material and detail-led rather than style-led to allow for both modern and traditional versions of the same house types, which will [all] feel like they belong in the same place because of materials, proportioning and detailing.He also believes the RBH tools could create buildings that have a good degree of familiarity with [the] local vernacular to provide the background buildings in a particular region. But he insists that each area would always want 20-30 per cent to be bespoke so [the streetscape] doesnt become toouniform. Source: Mae ArchitectsCourtyard view of pattern housing concept by Mae ArchitectsIf successfully rolled out across the UK, these digital house types would be readily available for small builders to use in 14 different regions, as identified by the Kings Foundation.In terms of planning, Bolgar says the system frees up the local authority from looking at every street because they know what its made of. The ingredients, if you like, of a recipe, have already beenapproved.Another key purpose of the initiative is agglomerating the regional supply chain across the UK, giving small builders a leg up. According to Bolgar: If you [bring] all the small builders together, they become the biggest housebuilder in the UK and then you get preferential treatment on supply chains.And will it take off? Bolgar says the Kings Foundation aims to launch the Regional Building Hubs in January 2026 when the current research phase completes. These would be devised as a membership organisation delivering services to small builders and large owners, he says.The outcome, visually, may be poles apart from the homes likely to be built in NSW. But it is telling that two very different organisations, on other sides of the planet, have both independently arrived at a very similar solution. Could history be going full circle?