In which I rant about a house
There is a house not far from where we live. In a suburb filled with street after street of what have become known as Mc Mansions, this one house in particular is the pinnacle of the modern building idiom. Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you (with annotations) The Ugliest House In Sydney:
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this place? The giant deck out the front, the house which almost fills the entire block of land, the lack of shade? How much house does one family need? How do they keep this thing cool in Summer? When the sun shines in Kellyville, it gets hot. I expect that they run at least one air conditioner for most of the day throughout January.
With land prices at the extreme levels they are a nice garden or some trees has become the ultimate unaffordable luxury, and given the choice between ten thousand on a home theatre system or a hundred thousand dollar's worth of land that also requires mowing, weeding and watering and is only enjoyed on the weekends, it's not surprising that this kind of development has become the norm. The richer end of the market is in bigger houses, and only the most exclusive new houses would consider putting in green bits, sadly. I'm not sure on the break-even point between running an air conditioner or getting space to grow trees and let them shade the house, but I expect at the moment it's far more economically worthwhile to electrically cool a house of a given size than it is to purchase extra land and maintain shade for one of the same size. Going to a smaller house is my preferred option, but that would spell the end of the consumer lifestyle as we know it, and who knows what fate would befall humanity then?
Anyway, here's my thoughts on improving it, if anyone has any other ideas, post them in the comments.
Am I the only one who sees a problem with this place? The giant deck out the front, the house which almost fills the entire block of land, the lack of shade? How much house does one family need? How do they keep this thing cool in Summer? When the sun shines in Kellyville, it gets hot. I expect that they run at least one air conditioner for most of the day throughout January.
With land prices at the extreme levels they are a nice garden or some trees has become the ultimate unaffordable luxury, and given the choice between ten thousand on a home theatre system or a hundred thousand dollar's worth of land that also requires mowing, weeding and watering and is only enjoyed on the weekends, it's not surprising that this kind of development has become the norm. The richer end of the market is in bigger houses, and only the most exclusive new houses would consider putting in green bits, sadly. I'm not sure on the break-even point between running an air conditioner or getting space to grow trees and let them shade the house, but I expect at the moment it's far more economically worthwhile to electrically cool a house of a given size than it is to purchase extra land and maintain shade for one of the same size. Going to a smaller house is my preferred option, but that would spell the end of the consumer lifestyle as we know it, and who knows what fate would befall humanity then?
Anyway, here's my thoughts on improving it, if anyone has any other ideas, post them in the comments.