There are special requirements to improve the design quality of residential flat buildings.

What rules apply to residential flat buildings?

In addition to all the other rules the NSW Dept. of Planning Residential Flat Design Code and the NSW Government Residential Flat Design Pattern Book support the ten design quality principles identified in State Environmental Planning Policy (SEPP) No. 65 — Design Quality of Residential Flat Development.

Your architect is required to design your residential flat building to comply with SEPP No. 65.

What additional information must be submitted with an application for a residential flat building?

Clause 50 of the Environmental Planning and Assessment Regulation 2000 requires that a development application that relates to residential flat development must be accompanied by a design verification from a qualified designer, being a statement in which the qualified designer verifies:

• that he or she designed, or directed the design, of the residential flat development, and
• that the design quality principles set out in Part 2 of SEPP No. 65 — Design Quality of Residential Flat Development are achieved for the residential flat development.

A qualified designer means a person registered as an architect in accordance with the Architects Act 1921. All registered architects are listed by the NSW Architects Registration Board. 

Architects have to be registered as an assurance to the public that architectural services will be delivered by persons with the appropriate qualifications, skills and professional integrity.

The NSW Architects Registration Board also provides details of the prescribed Registration Requirements including minimum qualifications, experience and information about the Architectural Practice Examination administered by the Architects Accreditation Council of Australia (AACA).

In addition to the design verification, the Statement of Environmental Effects for a residential flat building, to which SEPP 65 applies, must include:

• an explanation of the design in terms of the design quality principles set out in Part 2 of SEPP 65
• drawings of the proposed development in the context of surrounding development, including the streetscape
• development compliance with building heights, building height planes, setbacks and building envelope controls (if applicable) marked on the plans, sections and elevations
• drawings of the proposed landscape area, including species selected and materials to be used, presented in the context of the proposed building or buildings and the surrounding development in its context
• if the proposed development is within an area in which the built form is changing, statements of the existing and likely future contexts
• photomontages of the proposed development in the context of surrounding development
• a sample board of the proposed materials and colours of the facade
• detailed sections of proposed facades
• if appropriate, a model that includes the context (note that we require a model for all development with an estimated cost in excess of $750,000)