Three great cities, one big lesson on Sydney’s peculiar relationship with space

Just as a gas expands to fill its container – or a task always takes as long as its deadline allows – we tend to use up the space available to us.

Hong Kong, of course, has the most severe limitations on its shape and size. The steep terrain of Hong Kong Island means every inch of developable land is essentially built up to the maximum. The city is a global byword for high density, by necessity. Yet people will tell you the trains are crowded, even though they’re patently not, and even though we still haven’t entirely disabused ourselves of the COVID-era practice of leaving the middle seat empty. Our new Metro is a shrine to excess, with hugely long platforms and wide, cavernous and expensive stations that will dwarf their human patrons. We like it large, baby.

This innate preference for more space enters the housing realm, too. Apartments are demonised as “shoeboxes”, even though the exorbitant price of one-bedroom units would suggest we ought to be building many more of these smaller flats to meet demand.The idea that bigger is better is not uniquely Australian – it exists everywhere space is available, most notably America. Our car-dependent, sprawling cities resemble much more their American cousins than anything in Europe or Asia.

Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)

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