Be It Ever So Humble
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday February 6, 2004
The Premier's push to halt the spread of the McMansion will be seen by the proud owners of these mega-houses as elitism, arrogant and unacceptable. No less than an Englishman's, the home of an Australian is his castle. The freedom to live as one chooses and to show one's material success is expressed in one's house. As with cars, which keep getting bigger, so with houses. The mass-produced, value-for-money, off-the-shelf project homes that make many of Sydney's newer suburbs look like none before them are just what their owners want. Who are Bob Carr and a bunch of architects to complain?
The architect Glenn Murcett says project housing is no longer of the quality it once was, mainly because of a cultural shift in society. ``People want to impress. They want the biggest for the least. The families are getting smaller and the houses are getting bigger." More provocatively, he says there's something ``ethically suspect" about the popularity of ``these bloated, oversized, terrible houses".
Without doubt, houses are getting bigger. Fifty years ago the area of an average dwelling say, a three-bedroom fibro or weatherboard house, with a simple, separate kitchen was 110 square metres. And it sat in a yard about twice the size of the 500 sq m that is Sydney's average today.
There is also no denying the convenience of modern living and the shift in assumptions that make refrigerators and washing machines essentials, not luxuries. The argument is about excess the integrated double or triple garages, the second and third bathrooms, and the games and recreation rooms especially when they come at the expense of most of the traditional backyard and require changes in the design of houses so that more floorspace will fit on a smaller block.
Not only does less yard mean less playing space for children. When houses are built so close to the boundary that shade-giving eaves are impossible not to mention shade-giving trees questions beyond personal preference and lifestyle choice arise. Most of the new mega-houses are harder to keep cool in summer and warm in winter. They rely on artificial climate control, not only because they are not built for shade but because most, for privacy, are kept closed. Their owners might be content to pay the big power bills, but their extraordinary energy consumption raises wider environmental issues.
Mr Carr's proposal for a forum in April to devise ways to design more efficient, better quality homes seems at this stage to intend nothing more than to raise design standards. All new apartment buildings are affected by new planning laws reflecting Mr Carr's concerns. As well, all new dwellings must reduce water use by 40 per cent and greenhouse gas emissions by 25 per cent from July. Some councils already have block-coverage ratios which prevent the construction of McMansions. Given Mr Carr's interest in the matter, an obvious next step is to see moves for such restrictions be universally applied.
© 2004 Sydney Morning Herald
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