Australia’s psyche has been partially built on wide open spaces, the quarter acre block and the backyard, but by 2030 this will be more myth than reality.

We are expecting two (2) million more Ozzie’s over the next few decades, this coupled with changing economic conditions and declining house affordability has led to a changing housing landscape and a changing of the great Australian dream of owning a quarter acre of golden Australian soil.

By 2030 owning a double story house sitting majestically on a 1/4 acres will be a sign of wealth, or of forebears having purchased in previous “good times”. Instead many of us will move into apartments, learn to love smaller rooms and share communal outdoor spaces.

It’s interesting to track and contrast the evolution of migrants into Australia, who often through necessity and lack of disposable income, would start a business and live above the shop to save a few quid. In this earlier romantic time, the sign of having achieved was to leave the flat above the shop and move into a standalone dwelling.

Today we’re doing the opposite. We’re leaving the standalone dwelling, often because of lack of disposable income and moving to an apartment (no longer called a flat) above retail shops or mixed use medium or high density buildings and marketing this as “trendy” and “desirable”.

In a recent foresight strategy session with one of my large commercial / residential developer client we spoke of what they might be building in the next decade and beyond, what those spaces may look like, who will be living and working in them and what residents will want their multi-purpose home spaces to offer them.

This discussion is soaked in an understanding of the changing demographics, changing workstyle where increasingly we will work where and when is appropriate which will require our work and home spaces to do double duty, or if they are specialist work spaces to be extraordinary and inspiring work palaces.

These new buildings will be dripping in technology that monitors and adjusts physical space to our every whim and makes smaller spaces seem virtually much larger and more accommodating.

In this week radio segments I also looked at the possibility of growing satellite cities between our capital cities, the future of low to medium density mixed purpose buildings springing up around existing infrastructure and transportation and even dabbled into some of the technologies that may be building our homes, apartments and commercial building of tomorrow.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e4Or7A5w4ZE

So have a listen to the segments now, share it around with your friends and then lets chat about the cities and houses we want to live in, in 2030 and beyond.

4BC – Clare Blake (15 minutes 29 secs)

ABC Wide Bay (7 mins 10 secs)