If you had the opportunity to redevelop your entire block (or maybe just start with a group of say, 6 adjacent properties), what would you differently? Around here, I’ve got a few thoughts on what could be possible:
We could increase density by building smaller homes and multi-storey (low-rise) buildings.
We could layout the buildings so that there was minimal shading.
We could drop a ground-source heat pump that fed all the properties.
We could have vegetable gardens located at premium positions.
We could have warm, dry, healthier homes.
We could have a range of homes so that a range of people could live there, and so people wouldn’t have to move elsewhere as life circumstances changed.
We’d have waaaay less fences.
We’d probably have some shared facilities, like a workshop, children’s playground and possibly vehicles and or garage/storage space.
We could a central battery bank and solar panels on all the buildings to collect and share electricity, and group-buy power from the main grid.
Of course, all of this shared stuff is pretty challenging if you’re working on the assumption that we all “own our own home” in the traditional sense. But there is some form of common ownership (or non-ownership), creating some shared commons is not only easier, it becomes a natural extension of the advantage of (all) owning the block.