Post by WilliamHere we go
Suburbs: newly made model homes, curvy roads,no sidewalks
and no way of getting around besides one's own car.
These are some of the more concrete words that would describe a
typical modern U.S. suburb. A word that would group all these words
together might be "isolation." Not to say that that isolation is a bad
thing itself. It is understandable that some people would just rather
be left alone. Does this mean that suburbs across the U.S. should be
designed like this to preserve isolation? Again, no sidewalks, no
public transportation ,and an extremely inconvenient road system.
Might I add that typical modern suburbs have a few big chain strip
malls. All of these things being able to be built very quickly creates
an identical structure between suburbs across the United States. Urban
sprawl is being quickly and cheaply built across the United States.
Architectural style of modern suburbs is of mass produced identical
structures. This may not seem like such a big ordeal from a 21st
century standpoint, but that is because the idea of mass production
has become so mundane to us. Imagine if Chicago,Ill and New York,NY
started becoming identical, losing character. Imagine if the Green
Mill Jazz club in Chicago was replaced by a Starbucks Coffee. Or if
the row houses in San Francisco were torn down and replaced with a Wal-
Mart with 200 parking spots. Now all of these things are just
buildings in reality. But they play a big roll in character and
culture. To speak bluntly, another reason one speaks against mass
production of replicates of houses is that it looks ugly. Miles and
miles of replicated houses, is that what we want our country to look
like? Diversity is beautiful, not just in relation to race.
The row houses of SF and the browstones of NYC get much of their
beauty from the fact they they are the same as the one next door, with
very slight twists. They were built in their day as being the same
because it was fast and easy and probably cheap. In the city where I
live, most of this area have very similar houses -- they were all
built by the railroads for their workers, so design was a second
thought. Over the last 100 years there has been customization, but
they were built very similar right down to the floor plans.
(changing subjects)
In the multifamily industry, "isolation" sells. The communal
buildings with common lobbies, large hallways, and centeralized
facility have given way to short hallways -- if there are any hallways
at all. Townhouses are all the rage because you never have to
interact with the person next door -- and that's viewed as a good
thing by the people who buy/rent them.
Senior housing is different, but it is designed to force interaction
to avoid isolation of people who aren't going off to work, etc. every
day. Therefore you intentionally do things to get people out of their
apartments to do laundry, check the mail, etc.
