SelfAbrisham

Through Darkness
Building Beauty

A Community Led
Bottom-Up Approach
to Housing in Lismore
A Community Led Bottom-Up Approach
to Housing in Lismore
Key takeaways are:

❁ Community bottom-up approach to housing can be cheaper

❁ Pocket Park Divestment Medium Density Zoning

❁ Sustainable Design for Long-term Community

Abrisham is a built-environment researcher specialising in trauma,

biodiversity and healing.

First Released 2022, October

by SelfAbrisham

www.selfabrisham.com

A Community Led Bottom-Up Approach to Housing for Lismore © 2022 by Abrisham

(David) Vincent is licensed under Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International. To view a copy

of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

We can build housing in Lismore using a community led bottom-up approach and this will

reduce the cost of housing. Breathe Architecture has facilitated the process of building

medium-density residential apartments using a community led bottom-up approach.

Breathe Architecture projects follow these underlying principles:

Nightingale Housing Principles

Giving
20% to Social
Apartment Back
Housing
Communal To Local
20% to Key
Space Aboriginal
Workers
Community

Median House
Neighbourhood Net Zero in
Price Capped
Development Operations
Resale Profit

Public
No Reduce
Transport
Material Embodied
For Lower Car
Toxicity Carbon
Dependence

Figure 1: Summary of the Nightingale principles that define their 'holistic approach to

sustainability' for building housing. Retrieved on 31/10/2022 from

https://www.nightingalehousing.org/approach/principles

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Housing built using the bottom up approach can be 30% cheaper (Moore & Doyon, 2018).

It can also be more long-term sustainable because people who will occupy the home

design the home. They will be more likely to pool their resources towards designing and

building for long-term sustainability rather than short-term profit.

Council should consider their previous policy option of waiving infrastructure

contributions for housing which is designed and developed by community collectives in

medium density zoned areas (Lismore City Council, 2021).

Council Support

Buyer Collective
20% Social
Formation
Housing Grant

20% Key Worker

Grant
Land Identified
and Purchased

Planning &
Design
Infrastructure
Waiver

Development

Figure 2: Sequence for development of bottom-up housing in

medium density areas

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This bottom up approach does not consider houses built for rent however, alternative

options such as rent-to-buy should be considered. Ethical investors who intend to

provided rentals can also be welcomed provided that they meet criteria to provide the

rental at 30% to those classified as low-income (50%-80% of median income) for a

minimum-term (Lismore City Council, 2022, Figure 1).

With council working to build stronger communities and more sustainable housing they

could rezone land that was not suitable for recreation in their Pocket Park Divestment

strategy as medium density housing for the development of bottom-up community

housing projects (Lismore City Council, 2022, p.35).

This would help first home buyers and key workers purchase a home and make land ready

now for medium density residential development rather than relying solely on an infill

medium density residential development strategy (Lismore City Council, 2022b, p.11)

The bottom up community led housing approach has the potential to revitalise Lismore

through sustainable design and long-term community.

References

Lismore City Council. (2021). Lismore City Council Meetings and Minutes.
www.lismore.nsw.gov.au/infocouncil2/Open/2021/07/OC_13072021_AGN_AT.PDF

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Lismore City Council. (2022a). DRAFT Lismore Affordable and Diverse Housing Strategy.
https://yoursay.lismore.nsw.gov.au/80237/widgets/382897/documents/242543

Lismore City Council. (2022b). Lismore Growth and Realignment Strategy. Lismore City
Council. https://yoursay.lismore.nsw.gov.au/80237/widgets/382897/documents/242542

Moore, T., & Doyon, A. (2018). The uncommon Nightingale: Sustainable housing
innovation in Australia. Sustainability (Switzerland), 10(10), 1–18.
https://doi.org/10.3390/su10103469

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