I will live in a pod
I will eat the bugs
There’s something deeply unsettling about American suburbs, rows of identical houses, and not a human being in sight, no noises, just this artifical maze, my Uber took a detour though one once and I looked up from my phone and saw that I didn’t realize where I am and it all looked so identical it was disorienting and I freaked out a bit, had to open Google maps to realize where I was. The movie Vivarium captures this feeling well. Why don’t y’all get out and go for a walk and talk to your neighbors.
talk to your neighbors
That shit is WOKE.
Most places don’t actually look like this. You see stuff like this when a single developer buys up a bunch of land and stamps down a bunch of houses with the same 2-3 layouts. It’s pretty shitty and I’d eager most people don’t actually like it.
Most suburbs here are much more heterogenous as the houses are added incrementally over time.
the aetheric monotonous nightmare of commie blocks, with absolutely zero advantages, high cost, and HOA control
These types of identical house suburban hellholes are the exception, not the norm. Mostly it’s the newer developments being built out in the middle of nowhere that look like this, and presumably so the builders can skimp out on construction costs by making (or attempting to make…) everything the same for each one. Plus the HOA, “but muh resale value!” factor.
I live in an American suburb. All the houses in my neighborhood, and all the others in town, are different. We don’t have an insane HOA and I can paint my house whatever color I want. We have quite a few services, shops, and various eateries (to be fair, three of them are fast food joints) well within walking distance. With sidewalks. And in some places, even a bike lane.
This area was built up in the 1940’s through the late 1950’s in the post-war boom.
Imagine calling a house a pod.
Imagine calling one of those pods a “home”
Seriously? People live their lives in those houses. They sleep, cook, decorate, throw parties, watch movies, raise children. Just because the outside isn’t non-conformist enough for your personal tastes, that’s not a home?
There’s something wrong with that perspective.
It’s weird how the setback is so large that the houses are further away from the ones across the street than the ones on their back
Yes, the tiny backyard compared to the big front yard doesn’t make sense to me
Curb appeal. ?
Need space to park all those ridiculous cars
You could do a 4-wide parking area instead though. Instead of having to have people move their cars just for someone to leave. That wouldn’t help with RVs though.
But where would you put all that grass that needs mowing in the front yard?
In the backyard.
I can only speak for the Southern US but, developers want to build front-loaded units in subdivisions because they are more profitable. A rear-loaded garage costs a shit ton more in materials and labor, not to mention getting into impervious surface maximums vs lot size etc. I work in permitting/zoning, it’s always money, always. Heads up, y’all, don’t buy a D.R. Horton house if you can possibly avoid it, the more you know✨️
I don’t get what you mean by front-loaded. Wouldn’t there be less impervious surface if the house was closer to the street/ driveway shorter?
If you play/hang out in the front area as a sort of almost communal space, it could make sense.
Except you’ll get shot if you step on someone else’s property.
Makes sense, since anything else would be communism
You can’t afford the pod and you can’t afford the bugs.