Reverse Parking

There is a trend, a somewhat dysfunctional and stupid trend, to reverse park rather than park front in.  This is both selfish and dumb for two basic and very obvious reasons - traffic flow and vehicle access.

What goes through the mind of  someone who rocks into the car park at say South Melbourne market to fill the boot with vegetables, groceries and bottles of cheer to hold up all traffic so they can attempt a reverse park into a tight spot when they know they will be unable to eventually get their shopping trolley between parked cars or anywhere near the boot - if they can open the tailgate at all!  Apart from a lack of thought for other people they foil the very purpose of going shopping – making it easy to get the stuff home.  Instead, why not just spy a car park and zip forward into the space with no traffic hold up leaving the boot with easy easy access then, when leaving, wait for a break in the traffic and zip out.  Simple and thoughtful of others.

Still I suspect thought and a propensity to reverse park are mutually exclusive.

Not dead yet

Does that term conjure up images of a ‘really focused future’?  It should!

Many of us [I am 71] are looking to continue our bad habits of a lifetime in a place of style and comfort surrounded by our ’toys’.  Some of which we may even remember using.  Not the McMansion but efficient utilisation of space and clever design with low overheads.  Simple.

Retirement is a dirty word especially given a future life that is full of challenges yet to be fulfilled.  Indeed, this ‘place’ is not about tennis, skiing or golf or anything other than walking into a self felt nirvana whilst being surrounded by the ‘stuff’ of a lifetime including toys with which we can remember, fondle and dream.  Simple!

So, we need a double plus garage to take the brace of Ferraris [or Ferrari feel a-likes], a library to gather dust, a one-level bathroom with steam room to sooth the aches, a second room come office with fold down bed for those horrible visitors who won’t go home, an open fire to warm the bum, a bloody big TV to watch golf, a usable kitchen with a big dining table for the aforementioned freeloaders, multiple places to hang ‘art’, a security system God couldn’t get past and a small outdoor area where the live-in pooch can deposit their DNA.  Simple!

Boundary build with no waste space to mow or weed except the controlled DNA patch, 14m * 12m, prefab everything, erected to lockup with built-ins in a heartbeat, interiors and surface finish within weeks. Simple!

An internal focus of space and delight from which to leap into a future.  Build anywhere!  Simple!

Life is for living and it starts with human architecture.  Architecture which feeds the soul.