In the future, architecture might just as well look like old italian villages or a french chataux. It is about human taste and fashion. Not technical innovations.
One thing that's a bit different is it's relatively uncommon, in the wealthy world at least, for people to design and build their own home now, as opposed the vernacular (self-built) architecture of centuries past.
I'm a bit grumbly but it's frustrating to see planning boards make decisions about what fits local architectural character, as though we decided to stop changing what we liked when we started introducing planning requirements.
This is a big problem in The Netherlands. I want to buy a plot of land to build a home but it's always attached with a huge list of requirements. The home needs to be between A and B cubic meters, ridge height C, gutter height D, roof angle E, front needs to face the street, house needs to be perpendicular to the street, brick needs to be color F, needs to have parking for two cars, heating through system G.
I'm a big fan of prefab sustainable homes, the wooden flat-roofed bungalow ones that you can plop down from a factory in about two days. But those homes never meet the requirement list.
I am going through this process right now in an attempted to use a prefab timber frame extension to an existing home (ca. 1800 thatched cottage). We actually tried to get a Dutch thatcher incidentally but she was too busy! A similar house would be completely illegal to build now (internal space is ~600 square feet) but ironically it's illegal to demolish too (protected structure)
The homes around here are mostly, to be honest, pretty ugly concrete block pebble-dashed bungalows. I don't mind that because hey, to each their own, but saying that a home which looks like a log cabin doesn't match the local aesthetic so we should keep all houses in this style is frustrating.
I do wonder if planners have a kneejerk reaction to anything cheap since a huge amount of public policy is specifically designed to keep housing expensive (or "preserve home values" if you're so inclined) The bias towards slow, inefficient, on-site building is hard to understand.
There have been many projects in the eighties that reserved areas of neighborhoods which dropped most building regulations as you describe them here, including one in Emmen, where I was born. The results are not pretty: garish, impractical, unconnected with the surroundings. Although, perhaps amenable to the first owner, once the buildings are listed for sale, few seem to appreciate the builders unique taste. Furthermore, even though some of the houses are nicely built, many of them are just out of place: a Mediterranean house next to a Scandinavian, followed by a ‘large wooden shed’.
Newer projects have more appeal, where a larger group of families work together to form a connected architectural plan, often themed with energy neutral constraints. Perhaps that could be an option for you as well?
Finally, if you buy a large plot of land (villa style) you can do almost anything you like, especially because you are probably influential and able to convince the local government of your plans.
If you could design your new building so that it was invisible to everyone but you, there would be no need for these mind of regs. Unfortunately every built structure haas an impact on those around it.
Maybe not the color, but imagine if every one of your neighbors built homes that had no windows facing the sidewalk/street - just a canyon of blank walls, each with a door. I am not wild about the inertia that governs the design review process, but I don't think I'd want there to be no oversight, either.
That could increase local home values due to uniqueness. What’s lost from codifying building styles is the ability to adapt over time. Old cities are beloved not due to adherence to a ridged design, but rather a mishmash or difficult styles which add character and enhance their surroundings.
Good point. Planners are not the most innovative designers. Seems western cities will be stuck with dull bauhaus inspired, minimalistic and cubic design forever.
