Year: 2011
Type: book
Abstract: Introduction to antisocial space Modern misanthropy Alphatecture Gardenography The proprietorship of light Holiday house The car Tiny capital The bike Grass and class Space to burn 1 7 9 10 11 THE SPACE WASTERS AT A GLANCE Even when spacious and visually charming, Australian urban environments have a hostile side.Coining the term antisocial space, this book uncovers the hidden unfriendliness behind our most cherished aesthetics.Leafy and low, our generous spaces are designed for keeping people apart from one another rather than for coming together.The antisocial dimension is shared by much contemporary architecture, which shuns the life of the street.And it is not just space that is antisocial.Australian lifestyles and aspirations also discourage the feeling of living in a society.This book reveals how antisocial space is related to waste and how it produces an intolerance of people, resulting in cities with among the worst ecological footprint in the world.11 SPACE TO BURN provides a history of Australian space from prehistoric antiquity to now, concluding that low-density Australian spatialities are dissipating and antisocial, as opposed to urban counterparts elsewhere.It sums up the underlying themes of the book which equate a waste of space with a waste of time.It defends the moral motif of judging other people's fun and proposes how we might predicate our culture on more critical values.Large developments based on demolition always vaguely recall Le Corbusier's plan to raze a part of inner Paris to establish modern architecture surrounded by abundant open space.The experiment was not realized in Europe but aftershocks of the proposal were felt in other countries, like Australia.Instructively, because it revealed that when we have the opportunity to start again, with plenty of land, we have little idea of what to do.We build up, sure enough, but on the condition that the buildings have open space around them, so that they do not replicate the city centre, which in modern Australia became dedicated to bureaucratic purposes.So the new estate incorporates its own gardens in acknowledgement of a domestic template.To a greater or lesser degree, this compromise characterizes a great deal of development beyond the city, whether domestic or commercial.Regardless of any spatial concessions, new developments outside the city centre seldom win public approval and everyone senses that there is something wrong.We agree on the condition but not the cause.Some complain that there is not enough green or recreational space, that there are no barbeques or play equipment or netball courts, that there are no birds, that there is no life and that everything is artificial.Some protest that there are too many towers that create shadows and that developers have sacrificed the open space necessary for communities.Scrutinized by international comparators, the reasons do not add up and reveal naivety over space and its social meanings.The need for space and greenery around buildings is not axiomatic in other parts of the globe.Think of the busiest and buzziest streets But in talking of children earlier, we have already contemplated the problem that disturbs our suburban idyll.It is the intensive transport needed to traverse the handsome expanses of land.And here it all unravels.All the quiet streets are tributaries to
Author: Robert H. Nelson
Institution: Monash University
Language: English
Subfield: Architecture
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W2891138178