On this weeks’ Podcast Sue Williams and JimmyT explore the differences if any that our current locked down, work-from-home life will make to the way we build and live in apartments in the future.Last week we were taking the mickey out of marketers promoting “zoom rooms” … but then we thought about it and agreed, if they were done properly, they could be great.Then we look at the Australian Building (sub)Standards for noise mitigation in apartments which are close to useless even before builders start cutting corners and trimming costs on all the things we can’t see between walls and under floors.LISTEN HEREMeanwhile there are products like those we mention from Arcicture.com that cut down noise and look pretty good too.Then there’s open spaces, infrastructure for home offices, shared workspaces and areas in and around blocks where you can just chill out.Sooner or later developers are going to work out that putting a small premium on a lot of apartments that have access to a rooftop social space, is worth more (in every way) than selling a penthouse apartment to one person for their exclusive privileged use.This isn't going to happen overnight but unrenovated flats and new apartments, all with poor sound insulation, will drop down the priority list for buyers and renters alike.There’s all that and more – including the stupid “nanny state gone mad” arguments about leaf blowers in Bondi.TRANSCRIPT IN FULLJimmy 00:00Thank God for the Olympics!Sue 00:02Yes, it's come in handy at the time of COVID, hasn't it? Not for the athletes and the people who wanted to go of course, and the officials and the volunteers, but for...Jimmy 00:11Those of us stuck at home?Sue 00:12Yes. It's pretty amazing.Jimmy 00:14Yeah. I briefly toyed with the idea that maybe, it was deliberate.Sue 00:19I think somebody on Insider said today, isn't it fantastic; we're all cheering for Australia and we're all Australians when we win a gold medal at the women's relay, but when we're talking about dividing our Pfizer shots, we're a nation of different states.Jimmy 00:34Yes, exactly. Okay, now, we're going to be talking about how dealing with COVID has affected the way that we live in apartments and what that might mean for the future. I'm Jimmy Thomson, I write the Flat Chat column for the Australian Financial Review.Sue 00:54And I'm Sue Williams, and I write about property for Domain.Jimmy 00:57And this is the Flat Chat Wrap.[MUSIC]Jimmy 01:13Sue, if you were going to change anything about the way apartments were built in the future (given that this may not be the last time we have a pandemic, or a wave of the current one), what would you change?Sue 01:29Obviously, I'd want buildings to be much better built and to have much better soundproof qualities as well, because I think we're all at home a lot. If we had (god forbid), another pandemic, we'd all be home again. We don't really want to hear our neighbours playing the piano, or their kids running around above us on wooden floors, or playing the bass really loudly on rock music, or clanging weights in the gym; that kind of thing. We want to have some peace.Jimmy 02:00There's been a culture in and around apartments and I remember the old C
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Recorded by Jimmy Thomson & Sue Williams; Transcribed by Otter.ai.
Find out more about Sue Williams and Jimmy Thomson on their websites.
