Return of Terrace Housing !

When the first fleet arrived in 1788 they had an entire continent at their disposal, but when home construction started the style simply copied the mode that existed in the grimy, overcrowded city of London.  Streets of " terrace housing " can be seen in the inner city suburbs of Sydney even today.

More than a century later the style had changed.  The ever growing suburbs of the city consisted of free standing houses on quarter acre blocks.  That was the era of the  " suburbs " and distance between home and work was solved when we entered the age of the motor car, and parking that car became a problem in city streets.

Today is the era of high rise apartment living because we need to cram more people into this city.  The choice for many families is either a free standing home in the far outskirts of the city, or adoption of the " vertical village " in an apartment high in the sky.   The town planning people are suggesting a return of terrace style housing to fill the gap between these two extremes.  Terrace housing seems destined to receive fast planning approval to help reduce housing costs.

A lot of this thinking revolves around how the car evolves.   We are convinced that the " driverless car " will soon become a reality and the notion of personal car ownership will end.  It is a fact that the average privately owned car stands idle for most of the time, overnight and while we are at work - and we are being convinced that hiring a driverless car for leisure and work travel will be much more an economic option.

We humans are very predictable creatures.  The cars we drive are usually bought to depict our taste and style more than being just a means of transport.  Perhaps the notion of summonsing an anonymous moving box for travel, synonymous with what all the rest of the herd are using, will have little appeal to our personal vanity.

We would be unwise to write off car ownership on a cost basis.  As is evident with the present car fleet,  new innovations find their way into all areas of the price range very quickly and self driving cars are likely to follow that trend.  The car we drive today gives us bragging rights and a superiority complex.  That is unlikely to be discarded lightly.

The problem with terrace housing of the past was it made no provision for the car when the motoring age dawned.   Those living in terraces who bought a car were forced to park in the street, resulting in the inner city problems we have today.  We would be very unwise to duplicate that problem on the notion that privately owned cars will soon be a thing of the past.

At least the laws pertaining to high rise insist on a degree of onsite parking under the building.  How the age of the driverless car evolves is yet to be determined.