At university I studied through post-feminist philosophy eyes alot of the time. I did alot of
Image: LeCorbusier "the radiant city"
reading on LeCourbusier and used to look scornfully at his utopian city visions, of everyone living in highrise towers, separarted miles apart by huge tracts of forest with high-speed motorways in between. The main criticisms of this design from a feminist perspective were about alienation, women being stuck at home in these high-rise towers with the children playing in a playground 50 stories below and somethings else I can't think of right now.. any LeCorb fanatics add to comments please... Anyway, the point being that Singapore feels like an interpretation of that LeCorbusian plan which works is a way that I could have never understood when I read the texts, because I was reading from a perspective of isolated home life not densly packed life with exteded family structures still inplace. So you may be a mother at home on the 48th floor and the children may be playing outside on the ground in the (nice, clean, safe) playground, but they are watched over by your mother/aunt/grandfather and the local community. Or even possibly from LeCorbs day and today in Singapore, servants (gasp!)
This has me reconsidering my feelings on high-rise towers. I must say, I don't generally like their appearance on the skyline, or their powers to overshadow and block natural wind paths. So number one I would suggest to keep the population as small as possible.
But I realise we need more housing, our population is increasing, and I think immigration is a cool idea. Going up is infinitely better than going out. It's crazy to build on good farming soil or to destroy forests for these "housing" estates. New individual homes are so big that they are left with tiny gardens anyway, so why not have upwards sprawl? If combined with really good urban planning, and integrated systems in high-rise towers, such as a dedicated recycling shute, on-site water recycling, private garden spaces, communal vege plots etc, then I am thinking its worth thinking about.
This has me reconsidering my feelings on high-rise towers. I must say, I don't generally like their appearance on the skyline, or their powers to overshadow and block natural wind paths. So number one I would suggest to keep the population as small as possible.
But I realise we need more housing, our population is increasing, and I think immigration is a cool idea. Going up is infinitely better than going out. It's crazy to build on good farming soil or to destroy forests for these "housing" estates. New individual homes are so big that they are left with tiny gardens anyway, so why not have upwards sprawl? If combined with really good urban planning, and integrated systems in high-rise towers, such as a dedicated recycling shute, on-site water recycling, private garden spaces, communal vege plots etc, then I am thinking its worth thinking about.
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3 comments:
Yep I think the idea of high rise is OK, but I think there needs to be a 'verticle scale' of some sort that is employed.
For example... depending on the highrise there should be some sort of ratio of free space surrounding the development.. say a 3:1 scale.
So that if you had a 6 story building then you would need to site the development on a double block.. One for the building one for the free space..
A twelve story building would then need to be on 4 blocks...by doing this you would achieve an amount of space effeciency while maintaining flow corridors of living and natural elements.
ah yes. Your wolf st (and all the parrallels to it should be doug into canyons, and the skyrise becomes inground canyon rise. No broken skyline for alienated Australians to gasp at, and no steep hill for alienated youth to wheely bin ride down.
do we have the social structure in place to sustain 'vertical sprawl'? our culture of alienation, fear/terror and insular family units seems that it would lend itself to something more like J.G.Ballard's 'Highrise' than the utopian communities of Singapore.... just a thought...
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