ALTERNATIVE 21st C COMMUNITY HOUSING OPPORTUNITIES
CONTEXT: Two decades into the 21st C it becomes ever more clear that that the ubiquitous 'ShIpping Container' has become a kind of SPACEstandard that is well understood even in a subliminal context. As a 'design' these 'containers' stand almost unchallenged as one of the greatest design innovations of the 20th C. Their proportions fit neatly with the circumstances of modern transport, street scapes and the movement of goods from almost anywhere to almost anywhere. It is no accident that their proportionality say for TINYhouses has become a kind of SPACEstandard around which to design them.
It is now well established that a shipping container can provide adequate living space for a cohort of people occupying it as a single person or as a couple. This is not unlike in Japan where for centuries living space sizes are measured and accessed in relation to the number of tatami mats. [LINK]
Bare shell refers to a property, whose construction is completed and the basic building services are in place. However, such properties have unfurnished interiors and lack heating, ventilation and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems, lighting, plumbing and elevators.
Bare shell vs warm shell property
Both bare shell and warm shell properties are popular in the market. It depends on the purchaser whether he/she/they wish to invest on customising the property or not. For those who prefer customisation, bare shell properties are great. It is easier to plan and design these further. However, if your budget does not permit you to go overboard with the interior design, warm shell or semi-furnished properties are better. We have listed the following differences between bare shell and warm shell units.
THE NEED FOR A MINDSET SHIFT RELATIVE
TO HOUSING AND HOMEMAKING
In Australia it needs to be acknowledged that the social circumstances relative to 'housing ownership' has undergone a fundamental shift. The once widely held premise that everyone could and ideally should own the housing they lived in and understood as 'home'. Now the common perception is that 'housing' is an investment and IF you own the house you live in "it is most likely to be the largest 'investment' one is likely to make in your life" .
What has not changed nearly enough is the mindset that operates at all levels of 'governance' in regard to 'planning regulations' and consequently what the checks and balances need to be in regard to 'strategic housing policies'. The 'one-size-fits-all common denominator' set of assumptions that once might have served well enough, now can no longer be relied upon with any reliability.
In large part, the subliminal backgrounding 'standard' informing most 'private housing development applications' is that a HOMEplace dwelling will somehow fit the 'quarter acre three bedroom model' as once was the aspirational model. Alongside this the 'building standards' imposed have come to imply a somewhat over engineered one or two story structure that should be expected to stand let us say, two or three generations. Interestingly, a great many of the 'decision makers' themselves tend to live in such structures or in housing that is larger. Indeed the underlying imperative seems to be 'bigger is better' in the 'investment context' given the assumed trickle downs to trades people etc. etc. and 'wealth growth'.
How might this mindset change? Indeed, why sould it change? Well the social circumstance in Australia has changed along with the CULTURALlandscapes that urban Australians live in. Thinking about this there are some key statistics worth considering:
- In 2021, 29.1% of Australia's population were born overseas – this decreased from 29.8% ; and
- In 2020 7.5 million people resident in Australia in 2021 were born overseas Largest group of overseas-born were born in England – however Indian-born was the group with the largest increase since 2011; and
- In 2020, Australia ranked 9th internationally for the total number of migrants in its population.
MIndful of the sceptics view of statistics –There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics. ... Disraeli ... Statistics are used much like a drunk uses a lamppost: for support, not illumination. ... Scully ... You can shape statistics to make them look however you want them to.... Carragher – it does seem however that there is a generational shift at work in the Australian cultural reality.
Post WW2 pre Y2000, Australia has been shifting away from its peri-colonial social reality and likewise it is becoming less ANGLOcentric albeit still, statistically, largely EUROcentric. That said, what is increasingly the case is the increasing diversity cultural realities in Australia and great many are shaped by sensibilities that are not ANGLOcentric with cohorts that quite removed from EUROcentricity. So, 'the quarter acre three bedroom' mindset has become, and is becoming, increasingly unrepresented in governance, building standards and planning regulations.
Arguably, 'the homelessness syndrome' is in large part a product of all this and more so than 'governance' imagines given its policy settings. Hence, the status quoism that is on display and particularly so in 'local governance' where the rubber actually hits the road in PLACEmaking and CULTUALlandscaping.
WHERE TO FROM HERE?
While a significant cohort of people might well realise their OSSIEdream and get to own a standalone home on land that they 'own as an investment' there is a significant proportion of people for whom this is:
- Fiscally beyond their reach; or
- For whom it would not and could not provide the HOMEplace they need or want; or
- For whom it would not be a prudent 'investment' .
Civic planners, all too comfortable with the 20th C mindset demonstrate their disinclination to be proactive 'planners' with social inclusion in mind. Happy enough to 'police and maintain the status quo' the ever growing cohort of people with alternative aspirations are left to struggle with inappropriate planning laws and often somewhat irrelevant or misinterpreted building codes.
For whatever reason in local governance, and particularly within the elected 'reprentatives' – on the available evidence that is regularly on display at planning authority meetings – appear to be disinclined to champion anything like:
- Long term leaseholds on community owned property; or
- The engagement with their constituent communities to develop and maintain cooperative housing; or
- Standalone self sustaining communal housing estates; or
- Proactive Direct Deliberative Democracy in a 21st C context where CITIZENSjuries and CITIZENSassemblies exist to ensure accountability and transparency.
Politically, this can be evidenced by incumbencies' being 'risk adverse' and all too willing engage meaningful open and transparent community engagements and consultation processes. Incumbency and the status quo seem to fit each other like a hand might fit a glove.
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