What a plague of busy-body know-it-all social engineers.

Well since such opinion is free, and seems to be in fashion, my two bobs worth: anyone who disobeys my whim should be shot. This would make for the ideal society.

That is essentially what you are all saying, only the content of the whim differs.

Did you actually read any of the posts, Wing Ah Ling? Or perhaps you responded to the wrong discussion? I can't see any such attitudes in this forum. All I can see is people responding to an article discussing how we should live in the future. I said that I liked some aspects of the article and some aspects of other people's posts; other people tended to respond in a similar vein.

As I, for one, plan to live in the future, I think I am entitled to share my opinion on the matter. As are you. Unfortunately, you have not shared your opinion on the matter; instead, you have shared your opinion on our right to share our opinions. That probably belongs in another discussion. But I, for one, am happy for you to share your views here if it makes you happy.

What a wonderful Idea.

Lets all move into the type of housing enjoyed by the near slave labour of the factories of the industrial revolution. The type of stuff we took a hundred years to escape from, which still makes much of midland UK so depressing.

We can shut all the doors, windows, & blinds, [& thick, heavy backed curtains], & live in the same airless gloom as our unfortunate forbears. No lights either, we must avoid all that CO2.

We will have to make sure that all young doctors are well schooled in looking for rickets. They will never have seen them in the modern population, but these "NEW" living conditions will soon have it making a major comeback.

To have a life worth living, we must gather all those who have the words "plan", or "planner" in their job description, along with all social commentators, & stick them on a slow boat to China.

No, what has China done to deserve these buffoons being dumped on them? Lets send them to Iran, or North Korea, or some such, where their unique talents{?} will be fully appreciated, before it's too late, for us.

Just like wire coat hangers, in a dark closed wardrobe, these people are multiplying like crazy.

The main point of this article was how future AND EXISTING housing (not fixated on new housing, O617) might be more livable with least air-conditioning. The implication that we should NOT have a growing population is clear, although not stated.
Alas, Melbournians are told they cannot have their dream home with yard and garden. I lived in well-off British terraces which had both, plus parks, but no waste side-spaces.
Lovely crescents can follow topographical contours with a basic grid design – mazes are stupid in flat areas.
O617, there were no ‘canards’ (‘unfounded or false, deliberately misleading stories). I did NOT say (poor) people in less developed countries don't use air conditioning because their houses are properly designed. I said we can learn some design strategies from (not poor) housing overseas (not all ‘less developed’) so that we need less air-conditioning.
Our cities still take fertile farmland (see what’s happening on the Hawkesbury river) and rack up rates so farms must sell out. We need food grown nearby– I remember market gardens on the Yarra at Collingwood.
I did not say that houses cause population growth! But the more people, the more housing needed.
I did not say that two storey houses are necessarily more sustainable than bungalows. They can have advantages. Not everywhere.
O617’s URL http://www.demographia.com/ gives facts about housing development which appear to me to back up need to stop population growth, Re O617’s ‘etc etc’ what are they?
The ‘plague of busy-body know-it-all social engineers’ do not think they ‘know-it-all’, they are concerned, and seek discussion, not out to make profit-first-pay later. Australians jibe too much at those who put up ideas, Wing Ah Ling. Without social engineers we would still have cholera, no streetlights, and dreadful slums.
To shut doors, windows, blinds and awnings on the days over 30 degrees, and open them in evening cool does not produce rickets.
I like hearing the criticisms, and constructive ideas from the critics, apart from methods of disposing of those who irritate them.

How personally sensitive some people are to the idea that the present Australian suburban housing model is anything less than perfect. We live in a 1950s-built double brick bungalow on a 1/4 acre block. We have 18 chooks, fruit-trees and a vegie garden. We like the separation from neighbours of freestanding housing. There are good things and bad things here. If we ever move, I will build something that borrows from the good and avoids the bad. I'll build a two-story cube, the most efficient practical shape for materials saving and keeping heat in or out according to the season and temperature. 3.5 metre ceilings and big light open spaces downstairs – not dark or fusty. Good thick thermal mass walls, masses of roof insulation, as fireproof as iI can make it with two 45,000 litre rainwater tanks in the under-house cellar permanently tapped to a petrol firefighting pump always filled and firehose-ready. Solar cell electricity and hot water on the roof. No airconditioning. Planned redundancy in heating and cooking systems – separate electricity and gas and woodburning options. Double glazing. Yes, we will open and close windows and curtains and doors by hand to even out inside temperatures summer and winter, day and night. We won’t get rickets from the minimal exercise. Lockable flyscreen security doors make it safe. Either on 45 or 5 degree days a house like this stays comfortable. It costs more to build initially but over its planned lifetime of 100 years plus, more than pays for itself in comfort and security.

We can do better suburban housing. I don’t care what houses look like - McMansions with Corinthian-columned doublestorey porticoes are fine by me, if they have sound energy design principles built into them. It is about giving home buyers value for money. Who wants to live in a badly-designed stage set that doesn’t work as a home without many thousands of dollars a year and excess carbon emissions spent on air-con and heating?

We can also improve existing housing, applying such principles to extensions and renovations. Let’s keep an open mind.

Ozideas – the elephant of burgeoning population needs exercise wherever it can get it. Yes, you had it resting at the back of the tent for this event, so I sought to act as ringmaster and lead it out so that it could stretch its legs up-front and ringside.

Re. double-brick construction – its thermal mass means temperatures will be maintained: On a sequence of overcast frosty days perimeter rooms can become grossly miserable. After several days above 35 degrees Celsius, in the absence of shading or plenty of reflective white such as the old Spanish whitewash on the exterior, they behave like a traditional Greek bread oven.
About ten per cent of world energy use is expended in the crushing of rock – that relates to production of gold, copper, --- cement, brick.
Double brick is not as robust as brick veneer construction for one-storey residences, where the timber frame does the hard work of holding up the roof.