When architecture professor Philip Oldfield finished his degree 25 years ago, he was told he could do anything he wanted, but “don’t do housing. And whatever you do, don’t do social housing”.

He ignored that advice. Oldfield became a specialist in high-rise housing and the head of school at the University of NSW’s Built Environment, which offers the only masters in architecture degree in Australia with a specialisation in housing.

This week, 30 of his students – soon to graduate – participated in a real-world challenge on how to improve the amenity, livability and affordability in the second and third stages of a Landcom project in Annandale, called the Joinery, that will provide hundreds of new homes.

“People spend 70 per cent of their lives in the home – over two-thirds of their lives,” Oldfield said. “Think about what impact that has on people’s emotions, their wellbeing, their health.”

Landcom chief executive Alexander Wendler said the competition challenged students to design housing that people can afford. To celebrate the state developer’s 50th anniversary, and offering $10,000 in prize money, the competitor asks students to envisage what housing, communities and urban development would look like in another 50 years.

Loneliness was a real problem everywhere, said Wendler. And he was interested to see so many students’ ideas for community and communal spaces.“We believe that the quality of a city is not really driven by the skyline, but … what happens at the street level and how people experience the place every day.”

Students have been asked to design 357 affordable rental units and homes for stage two and three of the development, plus shops, a central plaza with lush native greenery, shaded seating area and public art for the new pedestrian connections between Parramatta Road and Pyrmont Bridge Road. (Stage one, a build to rent project for 220 apartments, isn’t part of the project.)

Dressed to match her towers, Raphaela Challita, 24, from Bayside, said housing was more than shelter. “What if the future of housing was colourful and welcoming and helped people belong, especially in the affordable housing sector.”

Emily Rowlings, 28, of Leichhardt, designed a six-metre wide buffer zone of communal areas for the apartment block on Parramatta Road, to insulate the homes from traffic and be used for exercise or work from home.

Annabelle Ferris, 22, of Randwick, focused on flexibility. Partly inspired by the French architects Vassal and Lacaton, she provided flexible layouts, using winter gardens to provide an alternate way of living within the same footprint.

Because the block is located on what will become a “super bus route”, Hubert Zhang, 25, Burwood, loaded the bottom floors of the high-rise block with a health centre, a pharmacy, and communal and coworking spaces that encouraged residents and others to make a connection.

Every second floor had a communal space, such as a reading space or an additional kitchen. “The idea is that our apartments or our homes don’t need the pressure of being all these different rooms,” said Zhang.

He also proposed a stack of rentable guest apartments for use by residents, saying people often bought homes larger than they needed to cater to family that may visit occasionally.

Javni Dave, 25, from Rosebery, responded to forecasts that Sydney airport would eventually be inundated by rising sea levels by proposing a much higher tower. “The height controls that govern how tall we can make buildings will likely not apply in the same way.”

Jack Guyer, 23, of Ashfield, designed a block that put affordable family apartments close to a large courtyard. He wanted to provide the things they liked about detached homes in the suburbs, but in high density living. “So they really want to live there, rather than being forced to.”