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What is your ideal living situation?


Holmbo

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The baugruppen idea is wonderful but we have to be realistic. What happens if one of the tenants wants to leave or dies? It will be difficult to find a replacement. Without a replacement, the rent goes up for others. How would you sell such a customized building later on?

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On 11/28/2016 at 1:15 AM, aussiekirkland said:

That sounds beautiful, I would totally have a forrest for a backyard over having a large house.

My ex sort of had that, it was really nice cos it was quiet and you could see deer out of his window sometimes :)

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Urban planning discussion? Yay :)
It sort of fits into the topic if one gets specific about the surounding area of ones living situation.

 

My ideal city is definitely a super dense one. When a lot of people are collected in one place is when you really get the critical mass for interesting meetings and interactions to happen. One has a much better opportunity to live in walking distance from friends and it's easier to be spontaneous about for example going out eating or to a movie if it's right by the home. The only thing I dislike with dense cities is that to much space is given to car traffic. I'd want most streets to be bike and pedestrian only, with buses being allowed on arterial roads.

 

I agree about the difficulty of supplying the demand for public good/ community goods. When it comes to urban planning one way to use some of the market forces is to turn to the land owners around a public space. If they were to invest in the public space, more people would use it and that would be good for surrounding businesses and might in the long term increase the attractiveness of the area. San Fransisco has done interesting things with this concept. Like for example parklets, were businesses are allowed to rent parking spaces and turning them into meeting spaces (on the condition that everyone is allowed to use them regardless if they are customers).


Otherwise it could be a good idea for the city planning of public spaces to be delegated as low as possible. Instead of city officials deciding what should be done with a space, local community could be encourage to apply for funds and work together to plan and build things for their local spaces.

 

I think one thing that's really missing (from my city at least) are public spaces indoors. If the weather does not allow for one to meet outside the only alternative are at home or in some commercial place. it would be nice if there were indoor squares, perhaps with some tables, ping pong table, a playground or other things. These could be made public for everyone or designated to people living and working around the area.

 

 

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35 minutes ago, Blue Phoenix Ace said:

The baugruppen idea is wonderful but we have to be realistic. What happens if one of the tenants wants to leave or dies? It will be difficult to find a replacement. Without a replacement, the rent goes up for others. How would you sell such a customized building later on?


If it is a big enough city there will always be more people interested in that particular living situation. Most of the times the homes are pretty normal. And because  the construction process is much cheaper you don't need as high rents/buying cost for the project to work.

We have some of these byggemenenskaper (as we call them, there's no word in English) as well. But they are not as popular as in Germany because our planning system tends to benefit larger construction companies. I think it will change in the future though. It's a really good way to get more actors into the housing market. And also to make cities more flexible. Combine this with allowing hoffices (combinations of homes and offices) and you have some really flexible spaces.

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23 hours ago, Holmbo said:

If it is a big enough city there will always be more people interested in that particular living situation. Most of the times the homes are pretty normal. And because  the construction process is much cheaper you don't need as high rents/buying cost for the project to work.

 

Yeah, I was going to say something similar. Even if only 0.1% of the population were interested in living this way, in a big city that still gives you a pool of hundreds to thousands of potential people to draw on. And since this type of housing doesn't really exist yet (at least not in my country - the UK) I could actually see a situation developing with demand massively outstripping supply and people going on long waiting lists to live in places like this. So, the opposite problem really to the one where the current tenants/owners have to worry about finding replacements! :) 

 

The housing situation in the UK is ridiculous right now, so it would be awesome for a bottom-up initiative like this to come along and really shake things up :D

 

Yes to parklets and non-commercial, indoor communal spaces @Holmbo. Little recreations of university common rooms sprinkled generously all across our cites :) Big thumbs up to this too :

 

On 12/8/2016 at 7:57 PM, Holmbo said:

Otherwise it could be a good idea for the city planning of public spaces to be delegated as low as possible. Instead of city officials deciding what should be done with a space, local community could be encourage to apply for funds and work together to plan and build things for their local spaces.

My name is @NullVector and I approve this message xD

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  • 2 weeks later...

I saw something interesting the other day. One of my friends works as an interpreter for sign language, and the place he works at is basically inside a little miniature village within the larger town. It's an entire village just for deaf people. Everything is catered for them: schools, housing, jobs, retirement homes... literally everything. Many people grow up there, work there, retire there, die there. I kept thinking how I wish I was deaf so that I could live here too... (but not really, I don't actually want to be deaf). They all have this thing in common that bonds them together in some way, and is the reason they live in the same community. I want something like that... although it'd be best if the people were there by choice.

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On 12/8/2016 at 7:57 PM, Holmbo said:

Otherwise it could be a good idea for the city planning of public spaces to be delegated as low as possible. Instead of city officials deciding what should be done with a space, local community could be encourage to apply for funds and work together to plan and build things for their local spaces.

 

I think one thing that's really missing (from my city at least) are public spaces indoors. If the weather does not allow for one to meet outside the only alternative are at home or in some commercial place. it would be nice if there were indoor squares, perhaps with some tables, ping pong table, a playground or other things. These could be made public for everyone or designated to people living and working around the area.

 

I like this baugruppen idea, but just like dorms, its also a huge gamble. When you are the last one to move in, its great, because you know what to expect. But if you aren't lucky enough to have X number of friends looking for a place to live, in the same price range, in same area it can get messy. In dorms there is always that one person who throws up on the wall every Friday night, or has such a strong body odour that you can't hang up laundry, or fills up the fridge so much you can't store groceries or the one who likes everything a lot more clean than the others...

Would be great to make that process a bit more quick. Like some sort of personality test algorithm, because in ads everyone is 'neat, clean and friendly'. In reality, you only get to know the person when you are living together.

 

In dorms you can request to change rooms. I'm not a moring person, so I really hated to have a window facing the fire station and wake up to their morning drill each day. Another person on the top floor on the other side of the building hated their outgoing room-neighbours who kept coming home around 2-3 am. We swapped rooms very quickly, there was no fuss, just five minutes of paperwork. They were happy with the lack of stairs and quiet(er) nights, I was happy with my sleep ins and good company. Win-win. 

 

A diy agency would be great, that would make it easy to swap places within the system. Like if it doesn't work out on a personal level, you have to move or someone wants to leave, there is a way to manage the change. The way owning your home worked 50-100 years ago just doesn't work anymore. You don't just get an eductaion, find a job and then retire from that job after decades. Most people in their 20s have already worked in several fields and jobs, moved house several times and will have to stay flexible.

It's not just not being able to afford a mortgage, but also the fact that settling down and building is a luxury, it's just isn't realistic for many of us.

It would be great to have like several living compounds in each city, and everyone gets the same rights by paying an amount of rent, basically the community owns the place. Perhaps different groups for different needs and preferences?

 

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When I talk about my dream house, I always go into excruciating detail about my music rooms and what kinds of instruments and tech I'd have. After a while, people usually ask "but what about the bedroom/bathroom/kitchen?" xD (In fact, I think in an ideal world, the music rooms would be a totally partitioned/separate part of the house that could double as a teaching space for private lessons.)

 

Socially, I'd prefer to live alone, but close to people dear to me. When I go home, I usually go to be by myself and unwind, and that's just easier for me to do when I don't have to be conscious of other people. Still, my friendships are important to me, and it's nice to have close friends as a constant in my life.

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  • 4 months later...
On 24/11/2016 at 3:58 AM, Spud said:

Having a room just dedicated to video games is the best idea ever.

 

I would put a playstation, Xbox, VR headset, various gameboy/DS/3DS stuff there. And of course a gaming PC. My dream room xD

That sounds awesome.

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A job which is paid well enough for normal living conditions, which doesn't require constantly working overtime so I can get a decent amount of free time. Me, a queerplatonic life partner, and two cats ^_^. 

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A small, relatively isolated community where the (distant) neighbours are decent human beings who behave well toward me, and where I can get all of my necessary supplies delivered, and can have a reliable and reasonably fast internet connection for an affordable price. And in that place, a modest home with space to sleep, cook, poop, bathe and use the computer. A Great Dane named Brutus (who could be female as well) for when I want some company (or when the dog does). A home defense shotgun I never need to take off its rack on the wall except for practice to keep shooting skills sharp. A decent tower computer that can run any software released two years or longer ago, upgraded every two years as needed. A generator and enough fuel for power outages, facilities to store extra food for when snowed in, and no known humans within dozens of miles except me.

 

How does that sound?

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On 22/11/2016 at 7:16 PM, Holmbo said:

The community, no romantic partners, not many possessions, being devoted to helping people, communal activities.

This sounds beautiful :)

 

I'd say a commune somewhere beautiful. Maybe in a large manor or seperate huts, several families/couples/people all living together and sharing the work.

I like warm climates best, I love mountains so New Zealand, Hawaii or somewhere like that.

 

 

On 23/05/2017 at 7:54 PM, Ice Queen said:

A job which is paid well enough for normal living conditions, which doesn't require constantly working overtime so I can get a decent amount of free time. Me, a queerplatonic life partner, and two cats ^_^. 

Sign me up :D

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  • 2 weeks later...

I want to make a communal living place, that provides assistance to disabled people without taking away their control over their lives, and also has non-disabled people living there as well. My thought is to buy an apartment building and have housing, housekeeping, a communal kitchen and dining area, communal daycare services, as well as various group activities you could get involved in if you want, and also a sensory break room (Snoezelen room). I'd have rent adjusted for income level, so people on welfare or senior pension could afford to live there. 

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  • 2 months later...

I have spent too much time thinking about this. So I found this valley between a national park and the outer-suburbs. It is about at 40 minute drive to the city in heavy traffic. Less than 10 minutes to the closest shops. beautiful land with no through roads, literally every road to the valley is a loop or dead end.  I would want a self-build eco development where a community comes together. Everyone has small parcels of land for their houses on the hill slope for road access and the valley paddocks are common grounds for people to have their horses and other animals. My dream house is full of spare rooms so that I could host my friends if they visit. 

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