A community to discuss solarpunk and other new and alternative urbanisms that seek to break away from our currently ecologically destructive urbanisms.
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For years folk have been joking about turning malls into Gen-X retirement communities so they can feel right at home. Welp...
EDIT: Cool idea, but they need to ban short-term rentals. I guarantee that more than half the units there are already exclusively on Airbnb.
This sounds nice if the apartments were a bit bigger and airbnb was banned, but I can't say I would enjoy living there as is.
It looks like they're reusing old shop spaces mostly as-is. Not much renovation beyond the bare minimum, and it's a historic mall. Makes sense that they'd be undersized and not too comfortable. Probably the most practical solution.
Which can be fine in this particular instance, but this isn't the general model we had in mind.
Sounds like this particular project is just a shitty one. You can have apartments larger than 250 square feet. And you can have full amenities with more work put into it.
Seems like CNBC chose the cheapest possible mall apartments to explore.
the Arcade Mall in Providence, Rhode Island
lmao. I can't be the only person who finds it amusing that this is like half a mile from the mall that Michael Townsend's group built that secret apartment in.
Can't have a stove, or a range of any sort, so preparing food is limited, I wonder if you could get by with an Instant Pot and an Air Fryer, and if those are allowed. Seems dystopian to me. Thought it'd be cooler.
Induction or generally an electric stove should not be against regulation. Is it a problem of outdated 110V cabling in the US?
Electric ranges definitely exist here so the stated reasoning alone doesn’t make sense. My guess is the developers didn’t want to pay for higher voltage wires as you allude to. Seems pretty solvable but I a lot of people in the US barely cook so I guess it works for those people.
There's tabletop electric burners and induction burners thar run off standard 110 outlets, I wonder if those would be allowed?
We get 240v. Just most household outlets are 120v. Notable exceptions that get the full 240v are ovens and stoves. I figure there's more to it, just not easy to cover without taking over the entire video.
Conversion of properties from one use to another fucking sucks.
I have worked in many industrial buildings that were converted to offices, and none of them had much in the way of human considerations.
I’ve lived in office to residential conversions, and while habitable they had many caveats. From utilities literally carving out spaces in rooms, odd shaped rooms, pillars in the middle of spaces, hallways barely big enough for an adult, poor lighting and little to no accessibility. The contrast between living in a purpose built residential building is black and white.
Buildings are built for a purpose. Once they are no longer needed for that purpose, tear them down and replace them with what is needed.
Retrofits allow the landed gentry to continue making money on their assets with minimal additional investment, at the expense of those using those spaces (which is never the owners)
