- Posts: 64
- Joined: Tue Apr 26, 2016 7:33 pm
Baysailor wrote:When you look at the high rise condominium apartments of glass and steel in North America, they are truly aspirational living. Have also seen recent equivalents in the Netherlands and other EU countries. The problem with us in the UK is that we still have the council flat stigma from years ago that high rise living is associated with. Until our culture can come to grips with the fact that many people prefer the lifestyle of upscale apartment living over traditional terraces we will continue producing mediocre buildings. Prospect Place was a good step forward. Hopefully Bayscape will continue this trend.
I think it's true that tall buildings have suffered from perceptions of the council/social housing developments of the past. Not just in this country, but also on the Continent too. But I'd extend that to other developments. I think we still suffer from this post-WW2 issue of cheap building, whether to replace damaged buildings or to kick off the economy, the precedent was set for poor-quality developments. Developers have been allowed to get away with a lot more in this country and as a result our expectations have dipped.
It's interesting that someone made comparisons with Canada. Australians are like Brits in that they love their houses and would rather a house than an apartment/flat. Most old suburbs in Melbourne were built around 0.25 Acre blocks of land and good quality housing. High-rise apartment living is a relatively new thing in Melbourne and Sydney. The apartments on the Gold Coast have been there for decades, but they're mainly for retired people and holiday lets. The early tall buildings in Melbourne and Sydney were for offices.
The big difference is that despite a boom-bust economy over the decades and skills shortages, Aussies won't pay good money for shit! They're very much like Yanks in that respect. They work hard, so when they shelve out their hard-earned cash they expect quality. More than that, there is far more civic pride in places like Melbourne and Sydney than there is in a lot of British cities. Do you think that Ty Pont Haearn would have been approved in say downtown Sydney or Melbourne? No!
We need greater expectations from our developers. Crap design and poor quality buildings should no longer be acceptable. Perhaps this will come as the demographics shift with more and more people living alone or as smaller families and flats become more attractive to a greater percentage of the population.