After just having spent a lovely few days in the beautiful NSW Southern Highlands, there were so many attractive properties that I viewed in my travels that it was almost painful to come back to Sydney and pass the plethora of ugliness that reigns supreme in some of our newer far flung suburbs. I know builders have had to cut corners to accommodate for the competition and the ever growing mortgages of a city like Sydney, and so features such as eaves and front entrance porticos have been eliminated from house designs, but some of the houses are just eyesores. A colleague of mine confided that he believed some of these estates are likely to be the slums of the 30's and 40's and I tend to agree with him. Whatever happened to differentiation and style? Whilst I realise that low cost housing is here to stay, surely lower build prices needn't equate to ugliness? Or am alone in thinking thoughts such as these?
No you are not alone. This is some thing that my wife and I talk about all the time. Maybe the 'masses' don't care about style and differentiation, or maybe they are not in a position to protest (by buying something elsewhere). We live near the Cadbury factory in northern Hobart. When it was built (in the 20's) the company owned all the land around it and built many cottages for their workers (the ones they imported from the UK I believe). There aren't many of them left, but they are absolutely beautiful simple houses. If you just go around the corner (to the waterfront) there is a new 'enclave' of the biggest ugliest monstrosities you've ever seen. I find it really depressing to see style and quality being replaced by conformity and the latest (misguided) trend. Ahhhhh, I feel better now. John.
Yes, it does feel somewhat better to get true feelings off one's chest, doesn't it?! When I constantly lament to hubby as we pass yet another new blight on our landscape, he reminds me that not everyone has the same taste, so perhaps my observations aren't necessarily accurate. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder, after all ...but does anyone consider homes such as these below actually attractive in any way, shape or form? Or am I being simply too pedantic about what constitutes "pleasing to the eye" when it comes to housing? After all, a man's castle is a very personal thing..... http://www.domain.com.au/Public/PropertyDetails.aspx?adid=2006170682 http://www.domain.com.au/Public/PropertyDetails.aspx?adid=2006308122 At the risk of offending anyone who lives in a house similar to these, please accept my apologies in advance- I guess I'm just going to have to accept that we all have differing tastes when it comes to what we choose to live in, and that budgets can often dictate style. Each to their own, I guess!
Hi Jacque, at least one of those houses had some eaves, the other was a boxy - but I've seen worse! I guess every decade has it's houses that people will later wonder "what were they thinking?" What I don't understand, particularly in Sydney, is why do so many people want 400m2+ McMansions? They look bland when you're trying to get as many m2 for the dollar as possible; big, cheap (in quality terms, not price), boxes. With concerns about affordability, what's wrong with 200m2 and a little more style for probably less money? Our first house was a 3 beddy of 130m2, what do first home buyers do with 400m2? ... other than cleaning! Dave
Thanks for the thread start Jacque. I agree whole heartedly. Most of these 'new' houses make me sick to the bone. Not only the terrible styles but the land content too. Cut backs in housing quality isn't the only thing going on. The new houses going up in Point Cook are a perfect example. Sterile, hospital/jail looking pieces of grey concrete so close to each other that some actually have eaves overhanging each other (no word of a lie. I don't how they went through, but there are houses with one house gutter overhanging the houses gutter next to it). Burn them down, give everyone an uppercut and start again. Phew, I needed that. BR
So you feel better now Good for you! Yet another eyesore that I came across today: BANKSTOWN NSW 2200 @ homehound.com.au I ask you, what ever happened to style???!!!
