Exploring Micro-Housing as a Solution to the Housing Crisis
The Regional Growth
The concept of micro-housing emerges as a compelling solution to address Australia’s Housing Crisis. Agnes Tiong, Associate Director from Urbis, highlighted the need for approximately 900,000 new homes in South East Queensland over the next 25 years as the region grows to accommodate a population of around six million. This growth requires innovative solutions to maintain the region’s liveability by enhancing the quality of life, transit infrastructure connectivity and housing accessibility.

The current solutions are focused on accelerating housing supply and ‘building up not out’, however,
- Diversity is key to sustaining housing affordability AND accessibility;
and we need a - Collective effort across the public, private and not-for-profit organisations to capitalise on existing infrastructure and deliver effective housing solutions.

Joseph Joven, Associate Director at nettletontribe took inspiration from his experience staying in one of Japan’s micro-apartments of 18m2. Mirco apartments will certainly challenge the Aussie norm with smaller spaces, though this type of living would not be for everyone, it may be perfect for key workers, young professionals, and young couples who are simply looking for affordable accommodation within walking distance of where they work.

Common Ground was a project that nettletontribe completed and is made up of 135 studios and 11 one-bed units. It has an open corridor and retail and function spaces on the ground floor, a communal balcony on every second floor, and a rooftop common space with city views. This is an example of housing that uses communal spaces to encourage an interactive and community lifestyle.
The combination of micro apartments and modular systems offers a solution for purposed-built keyworker housing which provides housing where people work and play. We are working on some incredible social and affordable housing projects and look forward to sharing more of this experience with you in the future.


Simon McCarthy (Simon McCarthy | LinkedIn), Principal Structural / DfMA Engineer from Systemised Design Group delivered an in-depth presentation on the benefits of using modular construction for new micro-housing projects.
Micro-housing is most efficiently delivered by adopting replicated floor plans on multiple levels. The consistency in layout inherently leads to modular building configurations. This allows structural frames and mech/elec paths to be standardised and fabricated using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC).
The housing modules are manufactured in a factory environment that allows ground works to occur on-site simultaneously, leading to significant time savings and an early return on investment. The manufacturing process also provides improved quality, reduced waste and predictability in construction costs.
The Queensland Government have been stimulating the capability of modular construction for housing projects throughout the state and will soon commence development of low to mid-rise housing projects. The increasing use of MMC in Queensland supports the drive for increased housing production with lower costs as an incentive for more affordable housing.
Modular construction for micro-housing must be initiated during the concept design stage of a new building. Reach out to nettletontribe and Systemised Design Group for their combined experience and collaborative approach in designing micro-housing with modular construction.