Subj : Re: 3.5 weeks to being la
To   : Vk3jed
From : boraxman
Date : Sat Aug 13 2022 21:16:45

 Vk>  bo> They do work better, as do "malls" between two roads or streets, thou
 Vk>  bo> neither of these are really places for people to linger.  Ballarat ha
 Vk>  bo> a nice mall, I can't remember the name, but its near Bakery Hill.
 Vk>  bo> Wide, no cars, quiet, parking nearby.
 Vk> 
 Vk> I'm not familiar with that mall.  
 Vk> 

I don't know the name of it, but I know its near a Woolworths on the Baker Hill side of the town centre.

 Vk>  bo> I used to live on a block where the middle of the block (it was a lar
 Vk>  bo> block) was a relatively large piece of grassland with a kids park in
 Vk>  bo> the middle.  A few blocks in this suburb was like this.  I always
 Vk>  bo> though that instead of having the houses face the streets, they shoul
 Vk>  bo> face the interior of the block, the grassland, with the street being 
 Vk>  bo> the "back" of the house.  That way, everyones front yard opens on to
 Vk>  bo> this grassland.  Every house then faces  a courtyard of sorts, but th
 Vk>  bo> streets you use to access them aren't a pointless cul-de-sac.  It was
 Vk>  bo> nice idea, to have these open areas, but having at the back of the
 Vk>  bo> houses, and not having them well maintained meant it was a lost
 Vk>  bo> opportunity.
 Vk> 
 Vk> It's a shame that it wasn't utilised as well as it could have been,
 Vk> because those enclosed courtyards encourage residents, especially those
 Vk> with kids, to mingle in a safe space.
 Vk> 
 Vk> 

The person who came up with the idea probably had grand ideas of how it would be used, but when it came to be built, they just built larger blocks, and left the bit between the houses (which behind my old place was large, enough to fit another 10-20 houses in) just empty grassland.  There were also larger nature strips, I'm not sure why.

It could have been an opportunity for novel design, for something different, but in the end it just became the standard surburban design but with empty spaces.

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