Instead of choosing between density or single-family homes, why not have both? (i.e. single family homes that are built in a dense style). All you have to do is look beyond the borders of North America for working examples.
The Tokyo suburb of Seijo mostly consists of single-family homes but is also dense. The homes aren't massive, but based on the Time article, residents are okay with smaller homes as long as they are detached. This blog post explains how it's done: https://newworldeconomics.com/how-to-make-a-pile-of-dough-wi... (it's a long blog post . . . you can skip to the line "I chose Seijo because:" and start reading from there)
Some notes about Seijo (summarized from the blog post):
- It is mostly SFDR (single-family detached residential), usually with parking for one to three cars per house, not dense apartment buildings without parking.
- Has a population density exceeding that of Brooklyn
I don't see why such a development style couldn't be implemented in a North American context.
Thanks for the reference. It will be easiest to give people what they want instead of convincing them they need to share a floor with 4 other families.
If you want people to buy into denser, multifamily construction, you've got to make the walls, floors, and ceilings soundproof. I didn't mind hearing my twenty-something lesbian neighbors going at it upstairs, but I bet they minded the hell out of me jerking off while I listened to them. And I minded the fuck out of the woman beating the shit out of her kids next door because they kept interrupting her while she was watching Netflix.
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[ 3.5 ms ] story [ 27.8 ms ] threadThe Tokyo suburb of Seijo mostly consists of single-family homes but is also dense. The homes aren't massive, but based on the Time article, residents are okay with smaller homes as long as they are detached. This blog post explains how it's done: https://newworldeconomics.com/how-to-make-a-pile-of-dough-wi... (it's a long blog post . . . you can skip to the line "I chose Seijo because:" and start reading from there)
Some notes about Seijo (summarized from the blog post):
- It is mostly SFDR (single-family detached residential), usually with parking for one to three cars per house, not dense apartment buildings without parking.
- Has a population density exceeding that of Brooklyn
I don't see why such a development style couldn't be implemented in a North American context.