Voder-Vocoder

I had an idea for a beach non-house several years back but I'm not sure I ever wrote it down. Reading about the Dymaxion House reminded me of it.

I enjoy tent living, but dislike leaky tents and damp tent-floors. The latter issue can be solved by placing a wall tent on top of a inexpensive wooden platform — I lived like that for a summer while working at a summer camp. The camp had a small building with a real bathroom and laundry facilities.

So the idea I had was a large circular wooden platform on stilts with a solid waterproof roof and a prefab bathroom + kitchen + laundry in the center. Ideally, the platform and roof could be prefab and assembled in place.

The edge of the roof would have canvas walls which could be lowered in the event of heavy rain or a chilly night. Light rain without accompanying heavy winds could be ignored, since the roof would significantly overhang the platform.

Depending on local conditions, insect screens or nets may be installed around the edge of the platform. In that case, the platform will need to be well-sealed.

The bath is a single room with walls and door, but the kitchen is just a sink, stove, and fridge on one of the outside walls of the bathroom. It is expected that kitchen counters and cabinets would be provided by free-standing furnature.

Electric outlets are availible both in the kitchen center and under the roof, along with light fixtures and perhaps ceiling fans.

Since there is very little privacy, the idea is to place them in secluded spots in the woods. It's obviously not for everyone, but would be popular with the back-to-nature crowd.

Many cities are designed on a Cartesian plan: north-south streets and east-west streets. Madison is on a double-Cartesian plan: N-S, E-W, NW-SE, and NE-SW streets all jumbled together.

If you want to go northeast, it is nice to be able to get there, but it does tend to make the city confusing.

So I’ve been thinking about other ways of doing it. instead of four and instead of eight direction, how about six? E-W, NW-SE, and NE-SW, where NW is really closer to 60 degrees, not 45 degrees.

You would end up with something that looks like a honeycomb. Then I pull in another idea: If neighborhoods are well-defined, does that make neighborhoods more cohesive? Would it help if I put definite borders between them? Why not space them a bit? Put in parkland to separate them.

Here’s the plan:

white = urban (residential/commercial) and high-density suburban zones.
dark green = parkland (either wooded or grassy)
light green = paved bike and walking paths.
heavy black lines = major boulevards (connects neighborhoods)
light black lines = avenues (minor streets not pictured)
blue lines = mass transit (elevated rail or subway) (connects neighborhoods)

The scale is on the order of one to two miles. This does not take into acount the unique topography of every location. The plan would need to be adapted.

Has anyone ever built a city with mass transit designed in from the beginning? Is it always an afterthought?

The thing I love the most about this plan is that one could walk from one end of the city to the other and never leave parkland.