RESEARCH|Community
AGILE HABITATS
A design framework that responds to urbanisation and time-hungry lifestyles by advancing Activity Based Living, the 20-minute city and smart modular delivery to create adaptable, people-centred homes and neighbourhoods.
Insight
Cities are growing and daily routines are blending work, learning and life. Activity Based Living reframes housing as a flexible platform that adapts to changing needs. The paper advocates for intimate, walkable neighbourhood nodes, permeable connections and green infrastructure, supported by modular construction that speeds delivery, improves quality and reduces lifecycle costs. Agile Habitats aligns dwelling design with social and urban systems so that people live closer to opportunity, nature and each other.
Key take-aways
Activity Based Living
Lifestyle patterns are fluid. Environments should support shifting energy and space needs, with settings that flex for work, rest, learning and social life across the day.
20-minute city
Re-establish neighbourhood nodes where most daily needs are reachable on foot within twenty minutes. Activated streets, human-scale movement and local amenity replace car-dependent sprawl.
Greening up
Green walls, rooftop gardens and landscape systems bring oxygenated relief into buildings, cool cities, improve air quality and support biodiversity.
From housing to habitat
Adopt the BISI triad to move beyond isolated dwellings:
- Built Environment: arrangement, form and construction that increase amenity at low cost.
- Infrastructure Networks: layered circulation and permeability that stitch developments back into context.
- Social Capital: shared spaces that build community and support everyday services.
Design for agility
Use “Flex Zones” so apartments can reconfigure or join as needs change. Design for multi-generational appeal, with layouts that evolve over time without major works.
Smart delivery
Leverage modular and prefabricated construction to reduce time on site, increase quality and safety, minimise waste and enable component re-use. Factory conditions improve certainty and can deliver significant lifetime savings and faster occupation.
People-centred movement
Prioritise walking, cycling and transit. “Green roads” and pedestrian grids connect internal clusters to the wider neighbourhood, improving independence and access to amenity.
Case references
- VIVO on High Line, New York: competition-winning concept connected to the High Line with vertical gardens and flexible floor plates.
- Parraween Street Mixed Use, Cremorne: key-worker housing with a workspace hub, health centre, café and new park.
- Duffy Primary School MODUPOD, ACT: prefabricated learning spaces delivered with minimal disruption.
AT A GLANCE
Purpose: shape affordable, higher-amenity living through adaptable homes, walkable neighbourhoods and greener urban fabric.
Core ideas: Activity Based Living, 20-minute city, BISI framework and smart modular delivery.
Results and implications
Agile Habitats demonstrates how adaptable apartments, shared social infrastructure and pedestrian-first networks can lift quality of life without escalating build cost. Modular delivery can compress programs, improve certainty and enable safer construction, while landscape systems make dense places cooler and healthier. Reframing housing as habitat aligns development with social value, sustainability and long-term affordability.
DOWNLOAD THE FULL PAPER
Get the complete publication including the Activity Based Living framework, BISI lenses, modular delivery guidance and case references.
