Neil Hopcroft

A digital misfit

On the train to london and i’m fighting the urge to sing chumbawumbas “urg, your ugly houses” out loud. Why do people buy these atrocities?


Categories: Memories.

/ 11 Comments

11 comments

  1. strange_complex

    Because they can’t afford anything else… :(

    The real question is why did anyone build them in the first place… Oh, yeah – ‘cos the people that built them weren’t going to have to live in them, only make loads of money out of the people that were.

    Reply
    • maluse

      Architects cost money (and I’d argue that domestic architecture died in the UK in the 1940s anyway) and the local council, who frequently say that houses should “fit in” to the local environment, don’t have anyone trained in architecture to make sure that they do, so we get left with hideous modern vernacular shite cluttering up the country.

      A modern Bryant/Barratt hutch^H^H^H^H^Hhouse costs about £20k-£30k to build and is then sold for (assuming average 3-bed semi in the South East) around £250k. Hence (given all the hooks the building industry has into government) all these calls for concreting the home counties and building hundreds of thousands of new homes instead of trying to actually sort out the housing shortage (hint: apartment blocks don’t have to suck).

      Reply
      • neilh

        Apartment blocks don’t have to suck, true, but the problem is one of the ownership model, it just doesn’t work in the economy here. Theres too much of a progression from ‘flat’->’terrace’->’semi’->’detatched’. That is etched into the social structure, you have to aspire to move up the chain.

        It doesn’t help that when people think ‘flat’ they think ‘council flat’, with all of the social problems that go with that kind of ‘affordable housing’.

        Reply
    • neilh

      “He who buys on price alone is this mans lawful prey”

      People are too sensitive to price and not aware of quality or beauty issues – if you’ve got a choice of 20 flimsy ugly houses you’ll pick the cheapest.

      Reply
  2. incy

    It does make you wander, but then people are allowed there own taste and choices, I mean people buy burberry baseball caps after all.

    Reply
      • neilh

        The world needs people with bad taste, so we can appreciate the people with good taste. We’re better than them (for whatever values of ‘we’ and ‘them’ you care to choose)

        Reply
    • neilh

      Yes, I was all shaven and babyfaced by the time I got there, only a bit stubbly around the edges, but I distracted them with my technical knowlege so the least of their worries is my ability to use a shaver.

      Well, that was the plan, anyway.

      Reply
  4. ulfilias

    This is something that comes up from time to time, what with Suzi being an Architect. The main problem is that people these days build down to a specification, rather than building the best they can. Every little penny saved is hundreds, if not thousands when multiplied by volume and people in general only consider the cost.

    Because we are a cost consientius people we have missed quality, beauty and design. I’ve only come to realise how much a designer can influence the unseen features of a product from a good one to a bad one by living with Suzi. In designing our new bathroom, i would have installed a bath, loo, shower and sink. It would be a bathroom and that would be fine. However Suzi considers the interaction between the items, minium spaces, form and function, as such we will have a very usable bathroom which will feel open and airy. In the same space i would have had a series of dysfunctional items that clashed and felt clostraphobic.

    Design and style are valuable, but not items that are tangible and as such people who cut costs don’t see them as valuable.

    Reply
    • neilh

      Cost savings are often a false economy – the estate I’m on now was built with single glazed windows, which people are now replacing (at considerable cost) with double glazing. After only, maybe, ten years. Several of the houses I’ve lived in previously still had their original windows from over 100 years ago.

      Its only when you meet good design that you really appreciate it…and design need not be expensive, its just a bit of inginuity, though the economies of scale are far more noticable when you’re talking about things like mobile phones.

      Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.