4 ms·

I've said this on previous threads, the problem isn't the availability of cheap building material or designs, it's the availability of cheap land. There's no po

I've said this on previous threads, the problem isn't the availability of cheap building material or designs, it's the availability of cheap land. There's no pop-up property unfortunately.

throwaway344 13y ago
Could you expand on what you mean by availability of cheap land? It seems to me that despite the problems with suburban sprawl, it did exploit cheap availability of land that is generally available at the edges of cities. Especillay consiering the vast quanties of land that is rural in the US. More stats about land usage can be found at http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses.aspx#.UyUI8fldWSo http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses.aspx#....
- pfitzsimmons 13y ago
  Two of the biggest factors in our happiness are a) the quality of your job b) the duration/stress of your commute. America faces a shortage of plots of residential real estate that are within a reasonable commute of quality of jobs. And you need to be in commuting distance of an abundance of good jobs, because job conditions at any one company can change fast, leaving you stuck. Suburban sprawl worked for a while, but in many metros the cheap land is so far out that the commuting times are horrendous.
  - contingencies 13y ago
    As a remote worker, I don't commute. Therefore, I'm presently negotiating the purchase of hundreds of hectares of 50-year regenerated native forest in northern New Zealand. Price is <$1000/hectare, which is not expensive in western terms. However, my wife refuses to live there for the moment on account of the relative isolation - it's about 3.5 hours to Auckland. Because it needs a dwelling, I've been researching building over the last few years and have come to the conclusion that I'd like to try straw bale. As long as you keep it dry, you get all the high r-value (insulation) benefits of a passivhaus without being limited to modernist finishings, mass-produced truck-hauled materials and straight lines. Plus, it's surprisingly more fire and earthquake proof than pretty much anything else.
bluthru 13y ago
At least in the US, land is too cheap. We should be encouraging density as much as possible.
- bjelkeman-again 13y ago
  In other countries this is often dealth with through zoning. You can buy land but you can't do whatever you want with it. I assume you have that in the US too, but maybe not as restrictive?
  - maxerickson 13y ago
    Yep. An additional issue is that there are lots of different administrative units making the rules, so a particular set of restrictive rules won't apply 1 mile away.
aaron695 13y ago
If only there was some magical way to put multiple dwellings on the one plot of land :) What you really are saying is you want a large house on a large plot in a location of your choosing for cheap.
ChuckMcM 13y ago
There is cheap land in Detroit. (I know, its pedantic, but it disproves the statement) But this project isn't really solving a problem per se, its a design project.
- codezero 13y ago
  Hm. More accurately put, where land is expensive, the problem isn't cheap structures. Or even more simple, nobody is complaining about the cost of materials.

I've said this on previous threads, the problem isn't the availability of cheap building material or designs, it's the availability of cheap land. There's no pop-up property unfortunately.

throwaway344 13y ago

Could you expand on what you mean by availability of cheap land? It seems to me that despite the problems with suburban sprawl, it did exploit cheap availability of land that is generally available at the edges of cities. Especillay consiering the vast quanties of land that is rural in the US. More stats about land usage can be found at http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses.aspx#.UyUI8fldWSo http://www.ers.usda.gov/data-products/major-land-uses.aspx#....

pfitzsimmons 13y ago
Two of the biggest factors in our happiness are a) the quality of your job b) the duration/stress of your commute. America faces a shortage of plots of residential real estate that are within a reasonable commute of quality of jobs. And you need to be in commuting distance of an abundance of good jobs, because job conditions at any one company can change fast, leaving you stuck. Suburban sprawl worked for a while, but in many metros the cheap land is so far out that the commuting times are horrendous.
- contingencies 13y ago
  As a remote worker, I don't commute. Therefore, I'm presently negotiating the purchase of hundreds of hectares of 50-year regenerated native forest in northern New Zealand. Price is <$1000/hectare, which is not expensive in western terms. However, my wife refuses to live there for the moment on account of the relative isolation - it's about 3.5 hours to Auckland. Because it needs a dwelling, I've been researching building over the last few years and have come to the conclusion that I'd like to try straw bale. As long as you keep it dry, you get all the high r-value (insulation) benefits of a passivhaus without being limited to modernist finishings, mass-produced truck-hauled materials and straight lines. Plus, it's surprisingly more fire and earthquake proof than pretty much anything else.

bluthru 13y ago

At least in the US, land is too cheap. We should be encouraging density as much as possible.

bjelkeman-again 13y ago
In other countries this is often dealth with through zoning. You can buy land but you can't do whatever you want with it. I assume you have that in the US too, but maybe not as restrictive?
- maxerickson 13y ago
  Yep. An additional issue is that there are lots of different administrative units making the rules, so a particular set of restrictive rules won't apply 1 mile away.

aaron695 13y ago

If only there was some magical way to put multiple dwellings on the one plot of land :) What you really are saying is you want a large house on a large plot in a location of your choosing for cheap.

ChuckMcM 13y ago

There is cheap land in Detroit. (I know, its pedantic, but it disproves the statement) But this project isn't really solving a problem per se, its a design project.

codezero 13y ago
Hm. More accurately put, where land is expensive, the problem isn't cheap structures. Or even more simple, nobody is complaining about the cost of materials.