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I've been having this idea of designing a neighborhood where the proportions of natural and built-up areas are reversed. Instead of having a basically artificia
by ciconia 1y ago
I've been having this idea of designing a neighborhood where the proportions of natural and built-up areas are reversed. Instead of having a basically artificial setting where trees live in little holes in the sidewalk, the basic setting is natural soil and vegetation, and the buildings are situated between and under the trees.
This brings up a lot of other questions: what about water and sewage infrastructure, electrical and fiber? What about maintenance of the vegetation? But it seems to me like a really cool idea, maybe even within the setting of a single homestead, where the basic setting is a forest, with some buildings nested within it.
- jezzamon 1y agoYou haven't explained what you'd do for the car-based infrastructure, which seems to be the main problem here
- forgotoldacc 1y agoHaving a lot of buildings under trees brings up a big problem when heavy rainstorms, wind, or hail occur. Texas has all three. Old trees are particularly troublesome since heavy limbs can snap off with very gentle stimulation. It's nice to build a house under a tree. It's a bad idea to buy a house that was built under a tree.
- 3eb7988a1663 1y agoRemoving trees adjacent to a house is also surprisingly expensive.
- pbalcer 1y agoThis exists in many parts of the world. And is usually reserved for the ultra wealthy, especially if you want it to be near a big city. One famous example is Karuizawa.
- dlcarrier 1y agoOne of my neighbors has a sycamore tree that practically covers the entire house. It does look really nice, but I'm glad It's not my house, because the tree is constantly dropping debris on the roof, and if a branch fell of in a wind storm, it could do significant damage to the house.
- R_D_Olivaw 1y agoSometimes you we just have to look backwards at some old designs. There are still significant tradeoffs though when living that close to nature. For example, I've stayed in cement/stone homes that are more dome-shaped. Completely surrounded by trees and a garden. Water ponds all around that catch rain and feed under stone canals to different areas of the land and grey water systems feeding bamboo. Wonderful, genius water retention system. But cold and rainy weather means you're surrounded by the cold and humidity of those same beautiful ponds.
- R_D_Olivaw 1y agoAlso, if you're not already familiar, you might look into Earthships. Lots of really cool ideas for building homes in a different way.