What are the SDA building types?
Every SDA dwelling has a design category and a building type. The category is about what the dwelling provides. The type is about what kind of home it is.
What are the building types for Specialist Disability Accommodation?
The NDIS groups Specialist Disability Accommodation into four building types: apartments, houses, group homes, and one type that covers villas, duplexes and townhouses. The building type sits alongside the design category when a dwelling is enrolled. It describes what kind of home the dwelling is and how many residents share it.
Every Specialist Disability Accommodation dwelling is described in two ways. The design category sets the level of provision the dwelling makes, as explained in the four SDA design categories. The building type says what kind of home it is and how many residents share it.
The two are separate decisions, and both are recorded when the dwelling is enrolled.
Apartment
An apartment is a self-contained dwelling inside a larger residential building, with other homes above, below or beside it. It suits residents who want to live independently in a building shared with other households.
Our work is low-rise, so the three types below are where Hybrid Volumetric Modular is used.
Villa, duplex or townhouse
This type covers a dwelling that shares a wall or a site with other dwellings while keeping its own front door. It suits one resident or a small household.
On a larger lot, several villas can sit side by side along a shared driveway, each with its own entrance and outdoor space, and be delivered as one programme.
House
A house is a detached dwelling with its own garden or courtyard, shared by a small number of residents. It sits in an ordinary street like any other family home, with nothing about it marking it out as accommodation.
Group home
A group home is a larger shared household. Residents have their own bedrooms and share the kitchen, living areas and outdoor space, with room for the support staff who work there.
The SDA rules limit how many residents a new-build dwelling can house, which keeps a group home at the scale of a household rather than a facility. A group home is also a planning term in NSW with its own rules, explained in what is a group home in NSW.
SDA building type and NCC class
The SDA building type is not the same thing as the building class under the National Construction Code. A group home is commonly Class 1b or Class 3, depending on its size and the number of residents, and the class decides the fire safety and egress requirements.
That question is covered in NCC building classes for special-use accommodation.
How the type shapes the design
The building type sets the plan before the design category sets the detail. A villa needs its own entry, its own outdoor space and privacy from the dwelling next door. A group home needs shared rooms large enough for everyone to sit down together, a quiet place for staff and bedrooms placed so a resident can choose company or quiet.
Both decisions are made at feasibility, with the provider's way of operating in view, because changing either once design is under way means starting the plan again. The enrolment that follows is set out in how is an SDA dwelling enrolled.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.
MADEmodular / MADEbetter.