The Brief
In 2025, the Victorian Government introduced Clause 55 – the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code – as part of a broader push to increase housing supply and improve design quality across the state. The new code replaced a more discretionary planning framework with a ‘deemed to comply’ system, setting clear, measurable standards for everything from street setbacks and building height to tree canopy, private open space and sustainability. The Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) needed a guidance document that would make these standards legible and actionable for architects, developers and planners working across Victoria’s residential zones. The challenge was to translate a technically dense planning instrument into something clear, practical and design-led – one that showed not just what the standards required, but why they mattered and how they could be met well.
Our Approach
Fieldwork contributed diagrams, graphics and case studies to the guidance document, working through each of the code’s four key sections: Neighbourhood Character, Liveability, External Amenity and Sustainability. For each standard, the work focused on illustrating the intent behind the rule and the design decisions that best achieve it, from how setbacks relate to neighbouring buildings and the feel of the street, to how tree canopy requirements can be integrated into a development’s layout from the earliest stages of design. The guidance also addressed more complex interdependencies within the code, such as how site coverage, permeability and canopy targets work together.
Impact
Published in May 2025, the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code Guidelines are a key resource for the design and assessment of medium density housing across Victoria. By pairing each standard with clear diagrams, exemplars and practical design advice, the document supports industry to engage with the new planning framework with confidence – reducing ambiguity in the assessment process and raising the baseline for design quality in residential development statewide.
Townhouse and Low-Rise Code
Design guidance documentation for the Victorian Department of Transport and Planning.
The Brief
In 2025, the Victorian Government introduced Clause 55 – the Townhouse and Low-Rise Code – as part of a broader push to increase housing supply and improve design quality across the state. The new code replaced a more discretionary planning framework with a ‘deemed to comply’ system, setting clear, measurable standards for everything from street setbacks and building height to tree canopy, private open space and sustainability. The Department of Transport and Planning (DTP) needed a guidance document that would make these standards legible and actionable for architects, developers and planners working across Victoria’s residential zones. The challenge was to translate a technically dense planning instrument into something clear, practical and design-led – one that showed not just what the standards required, but why they mattered and how they could be met well.
Our Approach
Fieldwork contributed diagrams, graphics and case studies to the guidance document, working through each of the code’s four key sections: Neighbourhood Character, Liveability, External Amenity and Sustainability. For each standard, the work focused on illustrating the intent behind the rule and the design decisions that best achieve it, from how setbacks relate to neighbouring buildings and the feel of the street, to how tree canopy requirements can be integrated into a development’s layout from the earliest stages of design. The guidance also addressed more complex interdependencies within the code, such as how site coverage, permeability and canopy targets work together.
Link: Townhouse and Low-Rise Code Guidelines
(planning.vic.gov.au)
Published
May 2025