Within most golfing communities, unless you actually own a golf front home or are playing golf, you won't see much, if anything of the golf course. This is because the land with direct golf frontage is valued at a premium and is almost always built out to its edges in the belief that this approach will maximise sales profit, meaning that if you live on a non-golf front home you may as well be living anywhere.
Through this recent project, a 160ha golfing community in Sydney, we took a different approach to the design and have shown that it is possible to open-up views to the golf and bring the amenity and value of the golf setting from the edge into the heart of the community whilst at the same time making significant improvements to the project returns. In reviewing an existing plan for the site we were able to redesign the park and street network to introduce a series of 'golf windows' that opened views to the golf course and provided better parkland and community spaces. The slight reduction in lots with direct golf frontage was easily offset by the improved value of the internal lots and reductions in engineering and construction costs resulting from the more site responsive design - showing how good design can improve our lives, but it can also pay for itself.