18 January

There are so many debates about housing, and like in so many other things, some of the ways these problems have been solved in the past have been forgotten. From the 17th century in Europe and 19th century here in Australia, a very popular way to house many more people in much less space, while retaining real elegance of urban design, was terracing. The famous terrace form is seen throughout the UK and France for example, but also here in Oz from the Victorian era, some of it even surviving in country towns. Lithgow and Bathurst both have remnant terrace housing. Terrace houses built well were orginally designed for the aristocracy, because they look elegant. They went on to become social housing as well. In Oz because we had so much land, terracing quickly gave way to suburban single-dwelling blocks. That model lead to our urban sprawl, which has now reached its limits. I think we should look to re-terrace urban areas, not least because it will make our cities look a lot more attractive again, as European cities are.