A New Idea for an Old Style Subdivision.

There is a small subdivision in Burwood Sydney called The Appian Way. It was created during the very early 1900s. It's full of beautiful Federation style homes. Even the run down homes backing onto busy roads would sell for more than $3 million now. 

I had an idea that if the interior of Australia started to develop and open up because of easy access to fresh water, then I would like to put forward some ideas for a thriving new township building a brand new portion of it's town. 

Firstly, because you have cheap access to water, I'd build a man made lake as a centre piece of the suburb. The lake would be shaped like a clover to maximise waterfront access and views. Before filling the lake with water I'd build road tunnels underneath the lake so you don't have to go completely around the lake to get from A to B. 

The lake would be completely surrounded by public walk ways and parks. Then public roads. Then private houses. So no one can own a waterfront. You can walk completely around the lake if you are fit enough. 

The houses in the new suburb look exactly like old Federation homes inside and out. However they are full of the latest technology to make them zero energy consumers and the lowest maintenance homes. 

The homes are built on large blocks of land. Land is cheap in the country so this is not a big issue. The homes are built on slabs like a conventional home. But that slab is a battery. The battery is designed to be structurally strong, non flammable and easily extended if necessary. 

The roof looks like the old slate tile roof you see on old Federation homes but it's really solar panels made to look like a bunch slate tiles. Any part of the roof left over can be covered by real slate tiles that match. 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Housing Affordability

Housing affordability is pretty important. Shelter is fundamental in the hierarchy of needs. Young couples put off having children until they can afford a house. Their living expenses influence the number of children they might have. The number of children they have is influenced to a large extent by how old they are when they start having children. Their lives get put on hold until they can afford a home. A huge part of their take-home pay goes toward their mortgage.  The Australian cities mostly developed after the invention of the motor car and after trains. Australian cities are thus less densely populated than many older cities elsewhere in the world.  In Australia, people learned to commute by car or train to their family home along tree-lined streets with big green nature strips past parks and ovals to their spacious houses with large front and back yards. To give this up would be cultural heresy. The political force referred to as "Not in My Backyard" NIMBY is very re...
Read more

Defending Australia

The World is fast losing its predictable order. Trump seems to be doing incredible damage to a reasonably successful Pax Americana structure almost daily. The Australian Government has attached itself to America as a way of defending our vast shores.  We were right to do so. As Kim Beazley once said, in history, there has never been an underpopulated country which is resource-rich and has not been invaded. We have always needed a powerful friend and patron. AUKUS is the latest incarnation of this policy. But with Trump in the White House, is it just one big terribly expensive mistake? Quite likely. And with Xi Jinping's speech about being ready for war by 2027 on constant rewind, these are troubling times.  Maybe we shouldn't build 9 nuclear submarines. If they get destroyed or they don't work or they come too late (they are at least 15 years away), then we have burned a huge amount of precious taxpayers' dollars. We can't afford to get this wrong if the threat is a...
Read more

Who Are We Really?

I will come straight out with it! We are a promising experiment of Mother Nature. As a species, we are egotistical and self-obsessed. For instance, in all our religions we place ourselves just under God. Every other living organism on planet Earth barely rates a mention. But just try living without them. They all deserve our respect but until recently, have received very little.  As a species, our calling is to evolve! We as a species are brand new. We have only been living a civilized life for 10,000 years. And in that short time, we have learned how to create artificial intelligence, explore other planets, and blow ourselves up. How amazing is that! But Mother Nature has not kept up. We still have the mind and body designed for a life of scarcity. We are still quite primeval. I'll give you an example. My life would be better if I woke up early each morning and exercised for an hour. Do I do it? No! Why? Because my mind and body were designed differently. I was designed to conserv...
Read more