tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/mcmansions-5171/articlesMcMansions – The Conversation2015-07-21T10:19:04Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/425792015-07-21T10:19:04Z2015-07-21T10:19:04ZWhen a house is demolished, more than the home is lost<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88557/original/image-20150715-26309-owrpun.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">In cities like Nashville and Vancouver, home teardowns are on the rise.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.shutterstock.com/s/house+demolition/search.html?page=1&thumb_size=mosaic&inline=222460054">'Demolition' via www.shutterstock.com</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 2013 alone, more than 500 houses were demolished in Nashville, Tennessee, a sharp increase from previous years. And hundreds of additional teardowns are expected in a city that’s projected to add <a href="http://www.nashvillescene.com/nashville/as-high-dollar-houses-crowd-onto-tiny-lots-teardown-fever-is-sickening-neighborhoods-across-nashville/Content?oid=4001510">a million residents over the next two decades</a>.</p>
<p>Nashville is hardly the only North American city to experience a recent wave of teardowns. In Vancouver, a housing and real estate expert <a href="https://elizabethmurphyblog.wordpress.com/2014/05/31/saving-character-homes/">reports</a> that the city issued more than 1,000 demolition permits in 2013. She points out that most of the demolitions are of single-family homes, and each sends “more than 50 tonnes of waste to landfills.” </p>
<p>While preservationists have long decried the loss of historic fabric and cultural capital through teardowns, the environmental costs of demolition are increasingly coming to the fore.</p>
<h2>A waste of energy and a waste of space</h2>
<p>The negative environmental consequences of teardowns are manifest. <a href="http://www.cmap.illinois.gov/about/2040/supporting-materials/process-archive/strategy-papers/teardowns/effects">According to the Chicago Metropolitan Agency for Planning (CMAP)</a>, demolition and construction now account for 25% of the solid waste that ends up in US landfills each year. Further, when a building comes down and its materials are hauled off to the dump, all the energy embedded in them is also lost. This consists of all that was expended in the original production and transportation of the materials, as well as the manpower used to assemble the building.</p>
<p>As CMAP explains, “examining embodied energy helps to get at the true costs of teardowns and links it to issues of air pollution and climate change (from the transport of materials and labor), natural resource depletion (forests, metals, gravel) and the environmental consequences of extracting materials.”</p>
<p>Often, a more environmentally friendly, quaint home is “replaced by a very expensive, much larger house, which is frequently left vacant.” Meanwhile, in the most desirable cities, in their tony suburbs, and in popular resorts, investors park their assets in “McMansions” that are <a href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/03/the-next-slum/306653/">sporadically occupied</a>. </p>
<p>Additionally, bigger houses necessarily encroach upon open space. Not only does expansion entail the uprooting of mature plantings – which benefit air quality – but it also eliminates trees that can provide shade and minimize energy required to cool buildings in warmer months.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88560/original/image-20150715-26284-15al5km.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">In the wake of the housing crisis, many McMansions remain unoccupied.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/ex_magician/8515837189/in/photolist-i5QS7J-dYvTH8-dYvTvP-miT31-9TERoF">Michael McCullough/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
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<h2>Urban facelifts erase more than crumbling buildings</h2>
<p>In city neighborhoods, opponents of demolition will often <a href="http://www.preservationnation.org/information-center/sustainable-communities/creating/teardowns/">cite</a> the loss of historic character.</p>
<p>Advocates for development, on the other hand, frequently argue that demolition rids cities of decrepit, obsolete houses, paving the way for multi-unit developments. In this sense, cities can become more efficient with their limited space, avoiding suburban sprawl while alleviating the long, traffic-snarled commutes of those who travel to the city.</p>
<p>In many cities, however, new construction on the sites of torn-down houses is aimed at attracting relatively affluent young or middle-aged professionals – the demographic that appreciates urban amenities like shops, restaurants and museums. </p>
<p>Time was that a “walking world” – that is, an environment in which services and amenities are available within walking distance of one’s home – was possible for all city-dwellers, regardless of class. Today, in many urban areas, housing in the dense central core is the purview of the rich, and the less affluent are <a href="http://archive.tennessean.com/article/20120701/NEWS01/307010062/In-Nashville-housing-options-push-working-class-edge">pushed to the outskirts</a>.</p>
<p>As a result, formerly diverse neighborhoods become economically monolithic. Longtime residents scatter as home values – and taxes – are driven up by new construction.</p>
<h2>Withering cultural capital</h2>
<p>Teardowns also have negative cultural implications. </p>
<p>All houses tell a story: they’re evidence of how earlier generations thought about domestic life and designed spaces to reflect their daily needs. When we demolish them, we lose those crucial traces of the past. </p>
<p>Of course, older houses often cannot satisfy contemporary demands for amenities, and were frequently built on a smaller scale. Modestly scaled houses from the 19th and early 20th centuries – which represent a wide range of architectural styles – are sometimes built out or renovated. But often developers and homeowners opt to (as a “For Sale” sign in my neighborhood recently put it) “scrape the lot.” </p>
<p>For whatever reason, high square footage has become a prerequisite for new homes in the United States, where the average size of a house built since 2003 is <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/8201900.stm">more than double that in England</a>. The United States Census Bureau <a href="https://www.census.gov/const/C25Ann/sftotalmedavgsqft.pdf">reports</a> that between 1973 and 2008 the average square footage of new houses soared from 1,660 to 2,519, only dipping after the Great Recession. </p>
<p>Small houses aren’t alone in falling victim to the wrecking ball. The Los Angeles Times <a href="http://www.latimes.com/local/california/la-me-lopez-otherhalf-20150322-column.html#page=1">recently reported</a> on the demolition of mansions in desirable LA neighborhoods that had sold for as much as US$35 million.<br>
Actress Jennifer Aniston has taken a stand against her mega mansion-inhabiting peers, <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11718171/Jennifer-Aniston-leads-fight-against-giga-mansions.html">arguing</a> that “The very idea that a building of 90,000 square feet can be called a home seems at the least a significant distortion of building code.”</p>
<p>Even in less supercharged real estate markets, large and well-built homes fall victim to rising land prices that make them more valuable as dirt. </p>
<p>One example is Georgia’s Glenridge Hall, an historic Tudor Revival mansion, which The Georgia Trust, a statewide historic preservation organization, <a href="http://www.georgiatrust.org/news/2015pip/glenridgehall.php">designated</a> a “place in peril” earlier this year. </p>
<p>Featured in films and providing some of the setting for the first season of The Vampire Diaries, Glenridge Hall had been preserved, until recently, by descendants of the original owner. But the architecture and planning firm Duany Plater-Zyberk & Company – darlings of the <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/atlanta/real_talk/2015/04/ashton-woods-homes-plans-new-urbanist-development.htm">New Urbanism movement</a>, which advocates for the revival of traditional town planning and walkable mixed-use developments – demolished the building to make way for a new mixed residential and commercial “English Village.” </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=444&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/88561/original/image-20150715-26325-uwajrp.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=559&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Richmond, Virginia’s Agecroft Hall is built in the Tudor style.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/phoebewanders/709431825/in/photolist-sCPAvS-9ZmMDj-25G2nc-9ZsqP1-9Zsv6w-9Ztme3-kS8vP-m6L9d-m6L8b-kS8AX-kS8wM-cabqdq-cabr87">Phoebe Reid/flickr</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>As I pointed out in <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Tudor-Home-Kevin-Murphy/dp/0847844897/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1433718412&sr=8-1&keywords=Tudor+Home">my recent book</a>, the builders of Tudor mansions like Glenridge Hall in the 1920s and 1930s attached a great deal of significance to the historic feel of their homes: in famous Tudors like the <a href="http://www.vahistorical.org/your-visit/virginia-house">Virginia House</a> and <a href="http://www.agecrofthall.org">Agecroft Hall</a>, they went so far as to import materials from actual English Tudors.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, for today’s wealthy builders and buyers, the past carries little cachet. For many, older homes are considered an obstacle rather than a badge of distinction. And when these radical <a href="https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/presentist">presentists</a> are given free rein to tear down the remains of the past, we all lose.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/42579/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kevin D Murphy is a member of the Society of Architectural Historians.</span></em></p>Home teardowns are often unnecessary and costly, in more ways than one.Kevin D. Murphy, Andrew W Mellon Chair in the Humanities and Professor and Chair of History of Art, Vanderbilt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/322252014-11-05T03:37:28Z2014-11-05T03:37:28ZMove over, McMansions – the tiny house movement is here<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63233/original/sqmz63dv-1414623548.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=21%2C0%2C4638%2C2643&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Who needs a big garden when you've got this?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.facebook.com/tinyabodes">The Tiny Abode Co.</a>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>A small group of people is gathered around a campfire in a Victorian State Forest. Members of the <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TinyHousesAustralia">Tiny Houses Australia community</a>, they’re attending a Spring Camp to talk about how to build a tiny house, and compare notes on how to address common barriers, like local government planning schemes. </p>
<p>The group is diverse, from students to professionals and retirees. One has been living temporarily in caravans. Others were forced to move into shared accommodation or board with family. Most have given up on the idea of buying their own home, put off by the high price tag or the size of the mortgage, or the downside of living far from family or employment. </p>
<p>Most of the group are also fierce promoters of a more sustainable, minimalist way of life who want their new houses to reflect this. You won’t find many en suites or walk-in wardrobes in their floor plans. </p>
<h2>Is bigger really better?</h2>
<p>Something is wrong when <a href="https://au.news.yahoo.com/thewest/a/25372224/170k-family-priced-out-of-perth/">a professional earning A$170,000</a> cannot afford to live close to work; or <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/business/property/firsthome-crisis-triggers-call-for-action-20131115-2xmcv.html">a doctor needs a parental loan</a> to buy a house. All 25 major urban housing markets in Australia are ranked as <a href="http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf">severely unaffordable</a>; and Australia has the <a href="http://www.imf.org/external/research/housing/index.htm">second most unaffordable</a> housing market among member nations of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). </p>
<p>Australian houses are also <a href="http://www.demographia.com/dhi.pdf">among the largest</a> in the OECD. In 2008, the average new house was 214 square metres, double the size of an average 1950s house. Very large houses are not only more expensive, but environmentally unsustainable. For example, the major factors that determine a house’s greenhouse gas emissions are its size and location; the bigger and more isolated the house, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10901-011-9212-2#page-1">the larger its emissions</a>. </p>
<p>For many, particularly young people entering the market and older people leaving the workforce, the “great Australian dream” of a big house on a quarter-acre block is a distant fantasy. And even for those who are living the dream, a sudden interest-rate rise, job loss or chronic illness could rapidly turn it into a nightmare. </p>
<p>Regardless of the debate over whether we’re in a <a href="https://theconversation.com/memo-to-the-imf-there-is-no-housing-bubble-27925">housing bubble</a>, the affordability problem is much broader than property prices. The most serious issue is the lack of affordable <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1467-8462.2008.00502.x/full">rental accommodation</a>.</p>
<h2>Finding sanctuary in a tiny house</h2>
<p>From this backdrop has emerged a trend towards <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-07-09/tiny-houses-big-with-u-s-owners-seeking-economic-freedom.html">building much smaller houses</a>. The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_house_movement">tiny house movement</a> originated in the United States in the late 1990s, largely in response to problems with housing affordability, although it has also been spurred on by the <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/global-financial-crisis">global financial crisis</a> and a widespread desire to live more sustainably. The movement has now spread to New Zealand, Australia and Canada. </p>
<p>Tiny houses are generally smaller than 40 sq m, and <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com.au/beautiful-tiny-homes-2014-8#this-60-square-foot-home-is-the-smallest-house-in-the-uk-16">can take many forms</a>, from granny flats, to repurposed shipping containers, to a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2014/03/21/tiny-house-on-wheels-abbotsford_n_5003376.html">complete houses built on trailers</a>. </p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=419&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/63676/original/m36s92m7-1415151376.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=527&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Room to manoeuvre: some tiny houses have wheels - just don’t call them caravans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Tiny Abode Co.</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span>
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<p>The benefits of tiny houses include <a href="http://tinyhousebuild.com/tiny-houses-infographic">overall sustainability</a>, reduced energy and water use (tiny houses are often “off the grid”) and, of course, affordability. Some tiny houses can cost less than A$10,000. Moreover, they <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1162/1088198054084680/abstract">use significantly less resources</a> to build, and are often constructed from salvaged materials or sustainably sourced products.</p>
<p>Mobile tiny houses could even help their inhabitants adapt to climate change; a house on wheels can be moved out of danger from floods or storm surges. They can allow adult children or aged parents to live independently, yet maintain access to family, employment and public transport. </p>
<p>Tiny houses can even address aspects of homelessness. In the United States, some local governments are donating land for <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/10/27/greensboro-north-carolina-tiny-homes_n_6054590.html?ir=Impact">homeless people to build their own tiny homes</a>.</p>
<h2>The biggest issues with a tiny house</h2>
<p>Although <a href="https://www.facebook.com/TinyHouseBlog">information is plentiful</a> on building techniques, plans and design, it is not very easy to build a tiny house. However, as attendees at the Spring Camp agreed, perhaps the biggest problem with building a tiny house is finding a place to put it. </p>
<p>Tiny houses do not conform to many <a href="http://www.berkeleyside.com/2011/01/07/a-city-looks-for-big-solutions-in-a-little-very-little-house">local government planning schemes</a> or building codes, which mandate minimum house sizes, maximum number of houses per plot, connection to utilities, parking provisions, and restrictions on temporary occupation. </p>
<p>It might also be argued that allowing tiny houses will reduce land values and lead to health and safety concerns, such as overcrowding. But people currently live in crowded conditions or illegally in sheds or caravans. </p>
<p>Some states, such as New South Wales, allow property owners to build <a href="http://www.planning.nsw.gov.au/Portals/0/plansforaction/affordablehousing/docs/Affordable%20Housing_Fact_Granny%20Flats.pdf">granny flats</a>. In other states, the regulations differ between and within each local government, although almost
almost all have restrictions on the duration of temporary occupation.</p>
<p>For non property-owners, particularly those who don’t want to take any legal risks, the options are fewer. And of course, local governments can and should impose planning restrictions on tiny houses, and ensure that they comply with building codes and standards. </p>
<p>Tiny houses are not for everyone. They will probably <a href="http://lup.lub.lu.se/luur/download?func=downloadFile&recordOId=4196241&fileOId=4196242">always remain a niche market</a>, more suited to people with no children, or retirees. </p>
<p>Niche, yes, but for some people tiny houses could be a lifeline. Being unable to afford to buy property, fulfil mortgage commitments, or even rent a home can lead to <a href="http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayAbstract?fromPage=online&aid=1046376&fileId=S0033291706009767">mental and physical illness</a>. In a sustainable city, everyone should be able to <a href="http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/0811114032000147430#.VFB38vmUd8E">access affordable housing</a>, and a tiny house is certainly better than no house at all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/32225/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Heather Shearer is a member of the Greens Party, 350 Org and the Tiny Houses Australia Facebook Group. </span></em></p>A small group of people is gathered around a campfire in a Victorian State Forest. Members of the Tiny Houses Australia community, they’re attending a Spring Camp to talk about how to build a tiny house…Heather Shearer, Research Fellow, Urban Research Program, Griffith UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/198872013-11-18T19:20:32Z2013-11-18T19:20:32ZStop demonising McMansions<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35374/original/g693xg5j-1384491682.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Don't hate McMansions just because you're supposed to.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Edward Corpuz</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Let me declare myself unambiguously: I do not hate McMansions, just because they’re easy to hate. </p>
<p>For quite a few years now, anybody who writes about these oversized single family homes has consistently demonised them as not just individually ugly, ill-designed and unsustainable, but as the building blocks of isolated suburbs devoid of a sense of community. </p>
<p>In an otherwise admirable reminder of just how ingrained the aspiration for a freestanding house is in the Australian psyche and polity, Peter McNeil, Professor of Design History at Sydney’s University of Technology, Sydney <a href="https://theconversation.com/me-and-my-mcmansion-australians-and-their-homes-12179">wrote in February</a> on The Conversation:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Apart from warehouse conversions and architect-designed homes, many Australian dwellings are McMansions that do not relate to the scale of the houses around them or have anything to do with their environment. It is possible that as in North America, we are retreating into our homes more and more, meeting lovers online, watching our video on home entertainment systems, cooking on industrial quality ovens and holding parties with enormous BBQs that would once have provided a catering company. Perhaps we need to think a bit more about whether we are part of communities and networks or if we are heading towards an atomised existence?</p>
</blockquote>
<p>That is mild compared to the vitriol of Fairfax writer <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/by/elizabeth-farrelly">Elizabeth Farrelly</a>, Australia’s only successful populist newspaper architecture critic.</p>
<p>Farrelly masks her unalloyed condemnation of McMansion design with a long-term, consistent, but remarkably axiomatic stance against their <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/11/08/1099781318531.html">over-consumption of land and resources</a>.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=374&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35494/original/qc5x59mx-1384753078.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=470&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">It’s true – many McMansions are too big.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Jes</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>If there is no need for even a pretence of objectivity, the condemnation can be brutal. On the <a href="http://thingsboganslike.com">Things Bogans Like</a> website, entry <a href="http://thingsboganslike.com/2010/02/02/mcmansions/">#76 McMansions</a> concludes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>In order to put a McMansion within reach of the financially impulsive bogan, builders take phenomenal amounts of shortcuts on the shoddily fitted out McMansion. Once the flashy silver oven breaks, and the paper thin feature wall cracks, it becomes clear that the housing estate is 10 years away from being a generic and unserviced bogan ghetto. It’s the great Australian dream come true.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What all this McMansion bashing has in common is a set of assumptions that are ill-founded.</p>
<p>The first is the convenient lie that McMansions are the opposite of architect-crafted paragons of good design. This is easiest dealt with by visiting somewhere like <a href="http://www.homeworld.com.au/kellyville/home">Homeworld Kellyville</a>, the display village west of Sydney. </p>
<p>Talk to the sales people, and the names of some of our better known mid-career architects are volunteered as the designers of an unexpected number of models.</p>
<p>The second anomaly is that a surprising proportion of available project home models are of notably good design. They make the most of small sites, with great connections between informal living areas and well sheltered outdoor <em>al fresco</em> rooms. </p>
<p>They have a relatively low proportion of glass area compared to their floor area (typically 20% “glazing to floor ratios”) yet look light and airy. Most architect-designed houses often have double that proportion of glass, or more.</p>
<p>They often have good planning for the needs of parents and growing kids to spend time together, yet also get away from each other. They have admirably economical and practical construction, in materials no different to those employed for much more expensive houses. </p>
<p>True, some McMansions don’t have any of these worthy attributes, and all are too big.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/35490/original/x2dk5hj5-1384752990.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Sherwin Huang</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The third inconvenient truth? Let’s ask <a href="https://www.be.unsw.edu.au/profile/patrick_troy">Prof. Patrick Troy</a>, a world expert on urban development and Visiting Professor at the University of New South Wales’ City Futures Research Centre.</p>
<p>He <a href="http://www.be.unsw.edu.au/sites/default/files/upload/FinalLandcomEnergyandWaterReport.pdf">pointed out in 2006</a> that, of the major dwelling types, free standing suburban houses are the lowest energy consumers per occupant and appear to consume less water per occupant than contemporary apartments. That is data.</p>
<p>Professor Troy also suggests that, if climate change ever forces us back to a higher degree of local food production, what we call “urban sprawl” may be actually more resilient as a form of urbanisation than the concrete jungles of urban consolidation.</p>
<p>In the end, I too come down on the side of the argument that suggests we have McMansions because they are a symbol of success, not because we actually need them. And the bad McMansions do spoil it for me, in spite of my admiration for the good ones. </p>
<p>But to be clear: I don’t hate them just because I’m supposed to.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/19887/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Steve King does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Let me declare myself unambiguously: I do not hate McMansions, just because they’re easy to hate. For quite a few years now, anybody who writes about these oversized single family homes has consistently…Steve King, Senior Lecturer in Architecture, UNSW SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/131862013-04-07T20:16:04Z2013-04-07T20:16:04ZThe Boomer housing bust: coming to Australia?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/22113/original/spcqt5cf-1365135455.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A respected US researcher believes baby boomers retreating from their large homes could lead to a glut of unsellable homes. Could this happen in Australia?</span> </figcaption></figure><p>They’re calling it the great “senior sell off” and it’s scaring suburban America. Still recovering from the housing market crisis of 2007-09, America’s latest concern is a looming glut of unsellable suburban homes as ageing baby boomers seek to downsize.</p>
<p>Respected demographer Arthur C. Nelson, Director of the Metropolitan Research Centre, University of Utah, has analysed data from the <a href="http://www.census.gov/housing/ahs/">American Housing Survey</a>, finding that over the past 30 years, 80% of new homes built in the US were detached single family dwellings. Much of this new construction was of the McMansion variety, exceeding 230 square metres in size, as the post war baby boomers (born in between 1946-1968) raised their families.</p>
<p>But as America’s baby boomers start to turn 65, many are getting ready to sell their empty nest, often seeking apartments or townhouses in rapidly gentrifying inner city areas near services and public transport, and in popular sunbelt destinations. The worry is that the number of people in their peak buying years coming along behind them, are estimated to be around a quarter of that in previous generations. Like boomers, new generations of American buyers want smaller, more accessible homes, and they are also are more likely to rent. The mass market for McMansions has shrunk. </p>
<p>Professor Nelson expects America’s next housing crash to hit when isolated seniors in auto dependent suburbs find ageing in place untenable. He predicts that between 1.5 -2 million baby boomer homes will hit the market each year from 2020 on. Those who can’t sell may simply abandon the family home.</p>
<p>Could this happen in Australia?</p>
<h2>Changing housing careers</h2>
<p>In many ways Australia’s social trends have echoed those of the US. Our own baby boomers are advancing towards retirement, with the proportion of over 65s nearly trebling from 8.8% in 1971 to around 21% by 2026 and 28% by 2056.</p>
<p>Our life cycles and housing careers have changed too. For most of the 20th century, the expected pathway was for young adults to leave the family home, rent in the transition years before marriage, buy a starter home before upgrading to a second or third home along with children and growing household wealth. Outright home ownership underpinned financial security in retirement, while renting was viewed very much as a transitional tenure.</p>
<p>However, as in the US, social changes, along with affordability pressures, have seen adult children staying home longer, and purchasing homes later. Many low and moderate income earners are unable to achieve home ownership at all, particularly in the major cities. More seniors are reaching retirement with substantial mortgages, or in long-term rental having fallen out of home ownership following a personal crisis such as divorce.</p>
<p>These changes reflect fundamental demographic shifts, with lone person households and couples without children the fastest growing household types. Our cultural make-up is also becoming more diverse, with unpredictable implications for household formations and dwelling preferences in the future.</p>
<h2>Changing suburbia?</h2>
<p>Like America, nearly 80% of Australia’s housing is detached.</p>
<p>But where Australia differs from the US is in the scale and nature of suburbia. In the US, cheap loans and other government incentives encouraged home buyers to favour new homes in the suburbs, rather than renovate existing city dwellings. Combined with an exuberant program of highway development, liberal land release policies, and a vigorous construction industry, America’s suburbs flourished in the post war decades. At the same time, disinvestment and a hollowing out of inner city areas combined with racial tensions to feed a process of “white flight” to the suburbs.</p>
<p>Stringent development codes for these new suburbs – large minimum lot sizes, prescriptive dwelling design specifications and zoning prohibitions against units and townhouses – created a virtual drawbridge – literally designing out diversity.</p>
<p>By contrast, Australian planning policies governing suburban release have always been linked to population forecasts and household trends, informed by the demographic and economic fundamentals that drive housing demand, preventing large scale over supply of dwelling lots, and avoiding “leap frog” development out of sequence with planned urban expansion.</p>
<p>Australian planners – though much maligned – also acted early to overcome local barriers to diverse housing types. For instance, NSW planning policy in the 1980s ensured that homes for seniors could be developed in residential areas, providing housing options for downsizers within existing neighbourhoods.</p>
<h2>Preserving housing value</h2>
<p>If Australia’s middle and outer suburbs – made up of traditional detached suburban homes – haven’t fared as well as the favoured inner ring in terms of real estate values over the past 30 years, we’ve certainly escaped the housing market failures that have blighted whole communities in many cities of the US.</p>
<p>Preserving this fundamental market stability is important, and will require careful urban policy in the future.</p>
<p>The real lesson from the US is that homogeneous, inflexible, and prolific housing development – the “build it and they’ll buy it” model – represents long term risks, and can be difficult to turn around when demand changes.</p>
<p>For us that means we need to continue to carefully evaluate the locations and scale of new housing. Particular risks are likely in coastal retirement destinations beyond the capital cities, many of which have seen increased numbers of detached suburban developments as retirees cash out their city properties for a dream home near the sea. But without accessible health facilities and services, or diverse and sustainable employment growth, these housing markets will struggle once the sea changers require higher levels of care, and commence a process of return migration to the major population centres.</p>
<p>In contrast to America’s surplus McMansions, another future weak spot in Australia may be poor quality high rise apartments in marginal outer locations. An ageing vertical suburbia may prove difficult to renew or adapt to unpredictable future shifts, once the current trend towards older, smaller household stabilises.</p>
<p>Our humble terrace has proved remarkably resilient and adaptable over more than a century, representing a highly desirable housing form as the backbone of the dense, walkable neighbourhoods home buyers increasingly demand. New generation terraces and innovative medium density housing offer longer term flexibility – and are generally compatible with existing suburban typologies.</p>
<p>As boomers age we can breathe new life into older suburbs by encouraging more conversion of existing stock – splitting homes in two. This can provide short term help for stay at home kids, and might also provide carer accommodation in future. Helping boomers adapt their homes to changing life cycles will mean less stock hitting the market at the one time, hence less downward pressure on prices.</p>
<p>NSW has led the way by permitting granny flats in residential zones, providing a potential income stream for retirees, while contributing to more diverse rental options in established suburbs.</p>
<h2>Reinvesting in the suburbs</h2>
<p>Professor Nelson urges Americans to renew and retrofit their ageing suburbs, rather than continuing 20th century urban sprawl, in part to protect existing home owners from further foreclosure crises.</p>
<p>While Australia’s current preoccupation is a perceived national under-supply of new homes, the real challenge is to unlock existing housing opportunities within our own ageing middle and outer ring locations. That means sustained policy support to transition existing lower value areas – at risk of further market decline – to the opportunity sites for future growth.</p>
<p>Your housing equity may depend on it.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/13186/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Gurran receives funding from the Australian Research Council (ARC) for research on the impacts of planning on the housing market.</span></em></p>They’re calling it the great “senior sell off” and it’s scaring suburban America. Still recovering from the housing market crisis of 2007-09, America’s latest concern is a looming glut of unsellable suburban…Nicole Gurran, Associate Professor, University of SydneyLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.