Bigger homes on smaller blocks pose some problems,such as room for trees and harnessing sunlight.Credit:Jason South
How did we traduce the great idea ofsuburbia? In the past 60 years,every critical characteristic of suburban houses has changed by a factor of two:sometimes doubled,sometimes halved,but the net effect has been the loss of all the good qualities of suburbia. It’s 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2 x 2.
Land is so expensive at the edge of the city that subdivisions are half the size of the 1960s quarter-acre (1000 square metres) block,often smaller at 350 to 400 square metres. The sites are skinny to minimise the length along the street and sites so small that the houses are oriented to the boundaries,not the sun. The houses are so crowded on the sites that passive solar is not possible,and cross-ventilation breeds a loss of privacy,so air-conditioning is the norm.
Meanwhile,the house area doubled from about 120 to 240 square metres,prompted by both a reduction in the quality of construction materials and the demand by purchasers for houses as large as possible. Children may have shared a bedroom and one bathroom in the past (I did). Now they have a bedroom and ensuite each;one living room for the whole family has given way to separate family areas just for the children.
When a house twice the size goes on a block half the size,it can no longer be a bungalow. It doubles to two storeys,and even then,it has a tiny garden,with no room for trees. The two storeys built to the boundaries overshadow the neighbours and invade their privacy. The increased bulk and absence of trees creates dominant forms in the street where once street trees hid the single-storey bungalows.
Loading
The narrow fronts,with much of the frontage occupied by huge garage doors,tell of another doubling. In the 1960s,the family had one car:Holden Commodore or Ford Falcon (my family were anarchic separatists with an AP6 Valiant). Now the family has two or more cars,bought as soon as you can drive. Parked on the front driveway,the front lawn,the nature strip (weird term),cars are necessitated by the lack of public transport in the outer suburbs:no trams,no trains,and privatised bus services that are hopelessly inadequate.