As I mentioned a few posts back I have been re-reading God Next Door by Simon Holt and I have to say that for those of us in neighbourhood mission this is one of the best books I have come across. Simply brilliant and brilliantly simple!
I intend to offer a series of reflections from the book partly because I need to in order to process it, but also because I know many of you won’t read it – even though you should!
Here’s a first thought that began percolating in my head…
Simon mentioned how we now live in privatopia where everyone occupies their own little piece of suburbia and hides behind the rollerdoor on the garage. Neighbours are much like rare animals – sighting are infrequent and when they do occur people aren’t sure what to do.
Simon writes of the days when the front porch was common – when houses had large front porches so people could hang out the front and connect with each other. When the pace of life was slower and people seemed to value the neighbourhood. I’m too young to know if this romanticised, but I like the concept…
Of course, this has now been replaced with the ‘alfresco’ area in the rear for private entertaining. We live in the back yard rather than the front. Privacy has overtaken any kind of engagement.
I started to wonder…
How would it be if houses began to be designed with huge front verandahs? What if building companies and developers started to re-invent the front porch? Or even more amusing… what if a group of us ‘invaded a suburb’ – the same street even – and built houses with big front verandahs and lived ‘out the front’ quite intentionally.
You should know I write this as introvert – but also as one concerned for the diminished quality of community that seems to be rife in suburbia. I’m not sure how I would cope with ‘living out the front’, but I reckon it has some merit.
Last year we built this house
We have since sold it on, but I wonder what it would be like if we built this house?… I have just moved a few bits of the design around so it is far from being workable – more just a concept.
What would it be like we intentionally started inverting the way we live so that most of life was out the front?
Family meals on the front verandah?
A pool in the front yard?
Sandpit out the front?…
Veggie patch?…
I wonder what it would do to communities if this became the norm?
Dante’s definition of hell is ‘proximity without intimacy’. I would say that is a pretty good image of suburbia, but I reckon many people would prefer not to live in ‘hell’.
Just a thought!
It’s interesting because our house has a large outdoor area on the front just like what you are suggesting. We do use it a lot, mostly for the kids to play. My wife’s study looks out on it from two sliding glass doors so she can work and watch them at the same time. We use the concrete floor as a chalk board, with the kids constantly drawing over the top of the dust from old drawings. We also write messages to visitors (personalised if we know who is coming) in chalk, on the floor, by the door. I would really like to do the area up a bit an add better seating and also add some seats to the garden in front of this area so we can do just what you are suggest and. It has far more potential than the backyard which I have set foot in no more than 12 times in the year we have lived here. I am away at the moment but when I get home I think I will really give the front area a fresh look to see how we might best use it. One idea I just had was that as we are starting a new small group this year (doing Exilio as soon as the pack arrives). We could hold it out there while the weather holds.
We’re just about to begin a remodel/addition to the house we’re living in, so you raise interesting questions. The houses in this tract (circa 1960) are built so they mostly show a blank face to the street — there are only 2 windows in the front, which aren’t even visible right now! I’ve been toying with the idea of putting in a sort of labyrinth lined with herbs and/or drought-tolerant plants in the front yard. Might give us a reason to use the front and slow down the neighbors walking by…
I loved this post. Thanks for the thought provoking post and I look forward to reading more of this type of thinking. I will try to get hold of the book to read sometime. Cheers!
I’m reading the book too.
Randy Frazee outlines some similar concepts in his chapter “Rediscovering Neighborhood” in “The Connecting Church”
Interesting post and something I have been thinking about lately. We moved to the country last year.
One thing I noticed is most people have side fences that are about 5 feet high and made of cyclone wire. You have no choice but to get to know you neighbours. Every time you walk outside and they are there, you have a chat. I am still getting used to it after Perth and its 6 foot high fences. I must say that I do know some of my neighbours better in 6 months that I did in 10 years in Perth.
I am also thinking of building a large pergola in my front yard and setting up an outdoor setting. Mainly for the family, but it might be handy for when the neighbours are about too.
Dave – the bush seems like an ideal place for a front verandah!
I’d like to see us shift the centre of gravity in suburbia too though – although I realise that is very very difficult!
I was surprised on moving to WA that the suburb all had these very high opaque fences. In Brisbane the norm had been for 3 or 4 foot high wire fences that you quite literally leaned on to chat to your neighbours. Everyone could see when others were having a BBQ and nobody cared.
It also meant you could see when people needed help.
We have a good relationship with our neighbours but we will soon b converting the front lawn into a vege patch which will see me spending much more time out the front.
I think that we actually need to reconsider the streetscape in order to reconnect. A lot of busy roads do not lend themselves to front yard living but by reshaping how our homes are accessed we could reinvigourate neighbourhoods.
Nice thinking Hamo.
this is so true!
the roller door syndrome is rife in the burbs
now we live in the country it’s almost a distant memory
but hamo I reckon you’re onto something here
be a trendsetter
build it and they will come 🙂
Like Grendel’s idea of using the front yard for the Grendel family market garden – how bout the permaculture concept as well? Josh Byrne from Gardening Australia has established a great functioning eco friendly house and garden in the tremendously fertile Perth sands somewhere in the burbs. He’s got a book out called “The Green Gardener” – very good book. This time next year you could be supping homemade rhubarb wine – huh!!!
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