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Jul. 24th, 2008
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What is the point of McMansions?
Jul. 24th, 2008 11:09 pmSeriously, what is the point? I was discussing the proliferation of the horrible things with friends and family in NZ, and the universal consensus is that they're vile and useless. If it's not clear what I'm talking about, it's over-large houses, often featuring ridiculous "porticos" and pillars, stuck out in the outermost suburbs, that fill up an entire land block (maybe a metre or two left around the edges), and in areas where there is no public transport to speak of, necessitating the use of a car for commuting.
I don't actually understand why they keep being built, or why people keep buying them. It makes much more sense to build up rather than cover the entire remaining land area in shoddily-built urban sprawl that requires more energy to maintain (both for commuting and heating/cooling costs of the monstrosity).
Part of the problem is that us colonials seem to have no idea about quality dense housing. Also, if an apartment block was built as a medium-rise, pet-friendly, double-glazed, spacious, conveniently-located, sound-proofed dwelling with some actual green space replacing some of the unused housing footprint, it would undoubtedly cost a bomb (because of course people don't care about double-glazing if they can have a granite workbench and stainless steel appliances for the same amount of money), and people probably still wouldn't want to live in them for the reasons they would prefer to live in the McMansions.
If anyone can explain why the McMs are so compelling, I'd really like to know. Honestly, if I won the lottery, I'd take a punt in developing a desirable high-density dwelling, just to prove it could work. Even in the antipodes.
I don't actually understand why they keep being built, or why people keep buying them. It makes much more sense to build up rather than cover the entire remaining land area in shoddily-built urban sprawl that requires more energy to maintain (both for commuting and heating/cooling costs of the monstrosity).
Part of the problem is that us colonials seem to have no idea about quality dense housing. Also, if an apartment block was built as a medium-rise, pet-friendly, double-glazed, spacious, conveniently-located, sound-proofed dwelling with some actual green space replacing some of the unused housing footprint, it would undoubtedly cost a bomb (because of course people don't care about double-glazing if they can have a granite workbench and stainless steel appliances for the same amount of money), and people probably still wouldn't want to live in them for the reasons they would prefer to live in the McMansions.
If anyone can explain why the McMs are so compelling, I'd really like to know. Honestly, if I won the lottery, I'd take a punt in developing a desirable high-density dwelling, just to prove it could work. Even in the antipodes.