How Designing for Connection is Creating Highrise Returns

Highrise living is reshaping Australia’s future, but human connection is falling behind. Fence-line chats have given way to silent rides in lobby lifts, changing how we meet, mingle and feel part of a neighbourhood. Developers now face pressure to create authentic community life in ever-denser housing, while rising costs make every square metre fight for its place. Architect Conrad Johnston knows this tension well. His practice, Studio Johnston, has spent years pushing back against the “two-bedroom balcony box” dominating Australian apartments, advocating for designs grounded in liveability rather than yield. ▲ Studio Johnston director Conrad Johnston says highrise projects must prioritise liveability over yield to avoid designing in isolation. Johnston says ignoring communal space early on does more than miss a feel-good opportunity—it hardwires isolation into a building’s design. “Every apartment building is a social experiment,” he says. “When you don’t plan for connection from day one, you’re designing isolation in.” The cost of loneliness Australia is already paying the price of disconnection. National research shows almost one in three people report problematic levels of loneliness, one in six are severely lonely and one in four say it persists for months at a time. Among young people aged 15-25, 43 per cent feel lonely, according to Ending Loneliness Together’s most recent report. “Loneliness isn’t just a private feeling, it’s a public health issue,” says Michelle Lim, chief executive and scientific chair of the research organisation. “The environments we live in make it easier or harder to connect. Developers are part of that equation.” ▲ Treehouse, Macquarie Park, at park level, as envisioned by Studio Johnston, with shared spaces for connection. Globally, the World Health Organisation links chronic loneliness to higher risks of heart disease, depression and premature death. This change is noticeable even in city streets. MIT researchers observed pedestrians today walk about 15 per cent faster and spend roughly 14 per cent less time in public spaces compared with 30 years ago. Cities are speeding up, while opportunities to interact quietly disappear. Frasers’ long game on loneliness One developer trying to flip the script is Frasers Property. Five years ago, it undertook a company-wide review of its purpose. “We took a really deep look at what it means for us to belong as a business and what we are here to do,” Frasers Property executive general manager of development Emily Wood says. ▲ Emily Wood, head of national development at Frasers Property, says designing for belonging drives long-term value. “We came to realise our role is to create belonging because everyone’s future depends on how we can live together. “To really understand this, we started by looking at what happens if we don’t get belonging right. And that’s where we uncovered this sort of loneliness epidemic, if you like.” Frasers went on to commission an SBS documentary, Australia’s Loneliest City , which examined the nation’s growing disconnection. During this project the company met Lim and began working closely with Ending Loneliness Together to integrate research into planning and design decisions. “Frasers Property has done some amazing work in really understanding how to build new and connected communities,” says Lim, who has a PhD in clinical psychology. “This is very much aligned with addressing loneliness.” She adds many developers still treat social interaction as optional, cutting costs on shared spaces or providing barren patches of grass where nothing encourages neighbours to gather. “Frasers is really years ahead in considering how you design a home or a street so neighbours can see each other, say hi, and feel comfortable connecting,” Lim says. For Wood and Frasers, it ’ s not just a side initiative. “Creating connection is part of our whole philosophy and ethos in every community we deliver,” she says. Across Australia, Frasers is already experimenting with ways to make connection part of daily life. At Midtown MacPark, neighbours from private, affordable and social housing share fortnightly barbecues hosted by local church groups. In Melbourne’s Berwick Waters, Tree Walk Park—an all-abilities playground created with the Touched by Olivia Foundation—brings families together outdoors. A case for connection through design: Treehouse Treehouse—a new apartment project by Frasers Property and Studio Johnston, now under construction in Sydney’s Macquarie Park—shows what designing for connection looks like when it’s built in from the start. ▲ Studio Johnston’s vision for Treehouse replaces blank corridors with light-filled ‘forest rooms’ for residents to gather in green sky pockets. Part of the $1.8 billion Ivanhoe Estate redevelopment, the 16-storey building will bring together 162 apartments within an 8.2ha masterplanned community. Treehouse, chosen through a design competition, is designed to make chance encounters and shared experiences part of everyday life. Instead of saving common areas for an unused rooftop, Studio Johnston carved four “forest rooms” into the building’s vertical core, each serving clusters of 20 apartments like pocket parks in the sky. Landscaped over three storeys, the forest rooms create natural retreats where neighbours can pause, work or chat without leaving home. “We managed to keep every apartment we needed by reclaiming space that would have been rooftop plant areas and carving shared zones into the building’s vertical core,” project director Stefania Reynolds says. “Those rooms break up the mass, let in light and offer real opportunities to stop and connect, without feeling forced.” ▲ Studio Johnston’s Stefania Reynolds says clever planning keeps shared spaces without losing yield. Johnston says too many developments tick the communal space box by leaving awkward leftover areas nobody uses. “We wanted these spaces to be part of the circulation pattern, somewhere you pass on the way home,” he says. “If you’re having a coffee in a forest room and a neighbour walks past, they ’ re more likely to say hi.” While part of the rooftop will be dedicated to solar panels and other sustainability features, the rest will be converted into a sky garden, with a kitchen, barbecue area and an outdoor cinema. ▲ The Macquarie Park project pairs apartments with communal gardens and open-air retreats. Why connection pays Studio Johnston’s proposal wasn’t the cheapest but Frasers chose it for its focus on shared space and long-term community value—a decision aligned with the developer’s 100-year approach to legacy building. “Yes, there’s an extra cost layer to doing this well,” Wood says. “But we see it as value, not cost. The long-term benefit is a stronger community and better outcomes for our customers and for us as a business. “When people feel they belong, they’re more likely to recommend us. We see that in repeat buyers, referrals and the feeling you get when you visit our communities, you can sense it.” ▲ Michelle Lim, CEO and scientific chair of Ending Loneliness Together, says design can make or break connection. Lim says developers underestimate the wider social cost of neglecting connection. “People might think loneliness doesn’t affect them, but we’re all paying for it, through our health system, our communities, our productivity,” she says. “Designing for connection is not charity work. It’s public health, it’s economics, it’s legacy.” Building in belonging Treehouse’s community-building starts long before residents move in. For many of its projects, Frasers hosts neighbour events during construction, introduces buyers to each other early and tailors programs based on who will live there. “We try to understand who’s moving in, what matters to them and create spaces and programs that reflect that,” Wood says. “It starts before day one.” Treehouse is due for completion in 2027. Its real test won’t be off-plan sales but whether residents feel part of a community five, 10, even 50 years from now. Loneliness Awareness Week Loneliness Awareness Week (August 5–11) is a national campaign highlighting the widespread impact of loneliness and the importance of building connection.

How Designing for Connection is Creating Highrise Returns

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