Living it up

Blame the Americans.

If they hadn’t decided that a sensible place to build a fledging nation was a small island jutting into the North Atlantic, the high-rise might never have been born.

Manhattan attracted residents and businesspeople in droves -“ but there was precious little room for either.

And when the last square inch of the island had been built on, New Yorkers decided that the only way to fit everyone in was to go up.

For many years the high-rise was the preserve of big business -“ often derided as being the most erect symbol of male corporate ego.

But things have changed and in Sydney’s CBD some of the tallest new buildings, such as Norman Foster’s Lumiere at Town Hall, are for living, not working.

So popular have these new homes become that the population of central Sydney has exploded from just 7,000 in the early 90s to over 40,000 today.

By 2030 almost half of us will live in medium and high-density housing.

The history and cultural impact of the apartment on Sydney is the focus of a new exhibition, Homes In The Sky, now on display at the Museum of Sydney.

The exhibitions curator, Caroline Butler-Bowdon, concedes that the power of the suburban cottage as a national icon has meant the flat hasn’t always been embraced in Australia.

It’s this Australian thing of wanting to be able to own your own [property] but also that the suburban way of life is the good life.

Whereas apartments have suffered because they look like something that is from overseas and therefore there’s a cynicism and a fear about them.

Certainly, the flat’s cause hasn’t been helped by the creep of anonymous tower blocks springing up in the city and now encroaching into suburbs such as Chatswood, Rockdale and Auburn.

And often the blame for this towering banality is laid squarely at the door of Meriton -“ Australia’s most prolific apartment builder.

Many blocks are driven by developers, Butler-Bowdon says, and Meriton does get a lot of stick when there are actually quite a few developers doing a range of work that is more in the middle range of apartments.

Butler-Bowdon points out that Bob Nation, one of Australia’s leading architects, designed Meriton’s World Square development.

These high-end blocks, however, are often only to be found in central areas where people will pay top dollar.

But, for many people, apartment living suits their style and way of life exactly.

Marita Leuver and Sylvia Weimer live in the Ithaca Gardens building in Elizabeth Bay designed by Sydney’s seminal skyscraper creator -“ Harry Seidler.

They see their flat as, a home of beauty and functional design, and have filled it with contemporary antique furnishings which complement the building’s modernist design.

It goes with the style of form we like and our choice of art doesn’t fight with the cornices. We couldn’t bear to leave, the couple say.

You’ve got to remember with apartments you can’t decorate the exterior like you can with a house or a garden, Butler-Bowdon says. You’ve only got the interior to play with so you get a lot of people [who have] beautifully assembled furniture and interiors. They craft their own domain.

Geoff Cousins also lives in Elizabeth Bay and loves flat living: An apartment is the only option if I want to live in such a great area -“ I’m more than happy to spend a whole weekend at home.

Apartment living is popular with many gay people with towers in Darlinghurst and Kings Cross full to the brim with homosexuals.

Butler-Bowdon suggests it has much to do with some gay people’s lives suiting apartment living.

In our time-poor lives, apartments have become very attractive, she says. There are a lot of people in Sydney who don’t want a huge commute and want to go out at night when they leave their office. The anonymity of apartment living can appeal to a lot of people, it appeals to renters and [flats are] far more secure than a house would be.

Typically, new flats swelled the population of an area but, initially, lowered the cachet of that neighbourhood.

Lower prices meant that some areas became more bohemian, such as in the case of Potts Point.

Now, however, with the growing popularity of apartments, it has gone full circle with areas becoming more affluent again.

It’s astonishing, Butler-Bowdon says. The skyline changes but also the shops -“ they are now open late and there never used to be 7-Elevens. There’s been a residential renaissance in the city.

But the vibe of the areas is changing, Leuver says, referring to Elizabeth Bay. Empty nesters are the only ones who can afford to buy in the area [and] the increasing homogeneity of the residents is obvious.

The apartment block has transformed not only the skyline of Sydney but also the type of people who live in the city.

Apartments were once seen as the second-class citizen to the suburban cottage, but Butler-Bowdon says that for a lot of people today, Their apartment is their castle.

Homes In The Sky is on display at the Museum of Sydney, cnr Phillip and Bridge St, until 26 August. A book of the same name by Caroline Butler-Bowdon and Dr Charles Pickett and published by Melbourne University Publishing is also available.