I’d like to suggest that you should do a segment dedicated to front garages. It’s clearly a recurring theme on Slow Home, but I don’t think you’ve ever focused specially on it. I’d be very interested to see what you (and your readers) would propose to replace the typical cookie cutter designs. I think this discussion needs to be grounded in reality, and not simply be an exercise in wishful thinking. I’d specifically suggest that “public transportation” and “walkable neighborhoods” are not viable alternatives to garages, and fall into the “wishful thinking” category. Given the reality of the world as it exists today (e.g. lot sizes, zoning, building codes, construction costs, etc.), is there a better way to design a front garage?

I welcome the discussion on the garage with open arms, and hopefully an open mind.

I was talking about TheSlowHome with someone this week and their first comment was, “What kind of discussions are there about about colors and materials”? There is nothing wrong with that topic. The current home magazines and television seem to focus on that. I for one am so glad that what is discussed are more fundamental issues that have a much larger impact on livability and are so much harder to change.

It is good to see that my long rant about garages may have helped catalyse a larger discussion about large garages and the blight they can be to a pleasant street-scape. This is not helped by the lack of hedges or something separating one property from the next visually, that can help mitigate the impression one gets of a street being a long parking lot punctuated by small expanses of lawn and a few plants.

I also like the idea of examples of what is right with some house designs. I believe a lot of the current bad design results from a marketing approach where function is trumped by form and impression. It is too bad that experience and lessons learned from the past are forgotten in the desire to label things “new”.

Hello John,

I got a chuckle from the architecture students’ humour regarding streetscapes of driveways and garage doors. I’ve been thinking about garages now that we’re talking about trying to re-design the two-car garage, and I think it could be a timely topic.

One of the things that homeowners with children may have to face is paring down the size of vehicle they drive. I know that as I was raising my two kids (now in early 20s), I got along with the smaller, older-model Accord and Camry, while at the school I usually saw mini-vans and SUVs. Perhaps the car culture led to the garage explosion. And now that the North American car market is under review and having to rethink its future, it seems a good time to be rethinking the homes for those vehicles as well.

I’m looking forward to this garage topic too.

John,
I share your interests and your pragmatic tendancies.

A real difference has to be made within the constraints of the real world. However, I would not be quite so quick to assume that all of the things you mention have to be “givens”. Somethings are going to have to give if we are going to have significant change. That doesn’t mean more money, but I think it does mean adjusting expectations.

I am also very interested in what incremental improvements can be made to the status quo that do not require these larger shifts in perception.

I too am more of a pragmatist. People will not willingly give up two car garages if they have two cars or even the eventual possibility of two cars; not even if they do not store their cars in their garage. They like the idea of having a two car garage in case they might one day want to store their two cars there. People will not give up larger cars until there is a deterrent ie higher gas prices.

As an owner of a van, I feel a need to defend myself. I have three kids in car seats. There really are not a lot of alternative vehicles that can (safely) fit three car seats, especially without putting my back at risk.

In many parts of the country, the two car garage has become a standard. Not having one seems to be some sort of blemish. Like the gas fireplace and the jacuzzi tub (please correct me if I am wrong) these things have come to be expected, irrespective of whether or not anyone uses them. A developer has to sell houses, and these things have come to be expected in any new house. And even if I don’t want or need a house with a double car garage, I do want to be able to resell my house at market value if the need arises; I don’t want to risk a realtor telling me that my house is worth less because it lacks a two car garage. We thus end up in this vicious cycle; everyone wants a double garage because everyone thinks that everyone else wants one.

It either takes a zoning change or a very forward thinking developer to risk making a development of detached or semi detached housing without a two car garage. I don’t know that you are going to find many of those anywhere at this time.

@John Brown: “it does mean adjusting expectations.”

I’m an American, dammit! I want it all, and I want it now! Not only do I want it all, but I *deserve* it all. I’m not interested in adjusting my expectations! :-)

In all seriousness, I don’t think anybody is going to get elected on the “adjust your expectations” platform. It just isn’t going to happen, at least in the US.

@John Brown: “Will people start buying smaller cars?”

Maybe. We’ve seen that US$4 gasoline can change consumer behavior, but I don’t think consumer preference changed all that much. More people may feel compelled to buy smaller cars, but they’re not liking it. Given the choice, many will go back to buying large cars, SUV’s, and trucks.

Ahem! I’m an American, too, as are all the Canadians on the site. I’m also a U. S. citizen, one of a multitude who do not fit into the Ugly American stereotype offered above. I’m also a member of the Real World and thus aware that the real world has always been, and still is, subject to change. I’m a pragmatist and know that pragmatists are best equipped to build a better world; in fact building a better world is the ultimate pragmatic act.

It is pragmatic to stop depleting natural resources, to adjust expectations, to build houses that take advantage of natural light, that humanize interior spaces, that afford privacy and community, that nourish human aesthetics, that are practical in layout and design.

Pragmatists, and marketing execs, know that taste and desire, both of which are cultural products, can be manipulated for sales. Pragmatists who are also educators know that taste and desire can be developed and nuanced as new knowledge and ideas are brought to bear on ingrained habits. It’s a slow process. And here we’re back to the pragmatic building of a better world and to discussions on the slow home site.

John,
Looking forward to the in depth discussion/review of the ubiquitous front attached garage.