I'm obsessed with housing estates

[Namechangepleas]

I'm going to struggle to put this into words. Over the past few weeks I've become obsessed with new build housing estates.
That sounds ridiculous I know but just thinking about the makes me cringe but I also can't stop. I've been driving around new build estates in my area just for the sake of it to look at them and also searching for them on rightmove.
It's more the estate its self than the individual houses. I feel like I'm in the film vivarium when I'm in one.
I know this makes absolutely no sense but has anyone else ever thought this?/

Sure, it's a weird way to make yourself feel good about your own choices, but it's harmless I suppose.

I like looking at old buildings and will go out of my way to see them, but it makes me feel good. I couldn't be arsed to look at things I don't like and learn nothing from.

I take your point but I think what people actually intend to get across is that it’s crappy planning and we should do better. Which we should.

Your own words - you could "not imagine anything worse" than actually living there.

Have you ever been to Poundbury, OP? I get the feeling you'd be fascinated.

And garden cities - Lechworth is fascinating.

Some of those types are absolute mazes! I have a friend that lives on one in Bedfordshire and I used to drive there before I had sat nav and I never made it in or out without going wrong somewhere. The directions to her house were mad - drive in off the main road, straight over the first roundabout, left at the next, left at the next, third road on the right, then a final turn in to her road.

If you really want to discover a true maze though, Kings Hill in Kent is right up your street (pun well and truly intended!).

I totally get it. There aren’t many around my way, but there are in nearby towns and I find them totally fascinating. It’s not a superior thing at all. The houses are all bigger and smarter than mine. They just seem sort of unreal? I can’t explain it!

A street of Victorian detached homes would have been a planned community (or "estate") at one point.

Fair point. This reminds me of the bit in A Room With A View when Mrs Honeychurch bemoans the nasty new-build villas the Emersons are moving into, that are spoiling the look of the village. Those villas would be sought-after period properties now.

So, 'twas ever thus...

I don’t really get it. Unless you live out in the country where there’s miles between neighbours, doesn’t everyone live in what was once a “housing estate”. It simply means a group of houses built at the same time surely? So if that’s a terrace row of older Victorian houses or a cul de sac of bungalows?

I’d like to see the houses of people who say they would never live in a housing estate.

Don't most people live on estates but they have blended in with other roads now so they are just roads 🤷‍♀️

Very few of us are privileged enough to live in a field with no neighbours ..

Very weird tbh

I guess I was pretty interested when I bought my first (new build 2 bed semi) home and for a few years afterwards when I coveted moving into a larger (4 bed detached). Used to like walking around our estate and the neighbouring estate looking to see where where would be good to move to/street names etc. Also would enjoy looking at show homes etc and layout of estates further away.

When I did move into the 4 bed detached I lost interest pretty quickly, and only stayed there two years (moved areas). Now not interested much all. Did look at a small estate of larger type 5 beds a few years back but was bored and wanted to leave after spending 2 mins in the show home. I guess they've stopped being aspirational to me? So, no, I don't really understand your interest now as you have no interest in living there. The mapping/layout thing - yes - but not specifically to new builds/newish builds.

I have lived in central london and then where I am now but in a worse part of town and now live on the outskirts of one of these estates ( i think!) i get a kick out of seeing my house when I walk up to it because I never thought I would have one like it and i LOVE walking around the estate. Its so beautiful, safe, peaceful, tree lined. Birds, flowers, lots of old people and families. It's not where I want to be forever but we are very happy here.

I used to be obsessed with new build houses when I was a teenager, I was obsessed with Barratt and it was my life dream to live in a Barratt house. Funnily enough, I did end up buying a new build (not Barratt though but practically the same) but long after the obsession had worn off. I always wonder if it was a premonition 😂

@FeathersFerns what do you mean by "bored" ?
Once you are inside your house with your furniture and things surely it's just a bunch of rooms with your furniture and things.
What's the difference really between living in a 1930s or 60's or 00's house - once you are inside.

Im with you OP - it's fascinating!

I live in what used to be a small market town that has tripled in size in the last 25 years, and it's basically a network of different new build estates from different eras tagged on to each other at every corner of town - it's fascinating!!

Especially looking at the difference between the early 00s ones, the late 00s one, all the way up to the estate we live on that's only just been finished this year. So interesting to see how the style / size / planning of houses have changed and how the layouts of the estates have changed. I notice front gardens have all but disappeared now so most of the houses are right on the street, where as in the 00s they had a lot more space!

The best bit is the estate we bought on has one side of the street the 'premium brand' and one side is the 'standard brand' so when we bought ours they made out it was a selling point that we'd get to look out our window at the premium houses 😂😂 still makes me laugh, I wonder what they told our over-the-road neighbours as a counter selling point 😅

This is a bit freaky particularly if you have no need to be in one. I got followed into my new build estate the other day and the person followed me down our cul de sac and turned around it was really scary. I imagine people on the estates you drive round have noticed you too.

This is a really weird thread lol

It was OP.

OK I'm definitely visiting poundbury!!!

We drove through Sherborne in Devon on the weekend having visited family in Plymouth. It’s very new, still going up, and looked quite high end - lots of houses built in stone, Georgian proportions, rows of tall townhouses as well as detached houses, and a development in the centre for shops and restaurants that looked really nice. It looked very well planned, reminded me of Poundbury rather than the estates typically described here. I don’t know any more about it than that so if anyone knows the area I’d be interested to see how it turns out!

What do you get from it. Is it to do with actually looking at the houses and environment they’re in, or is it more a vibe or something you can’t put your finger on, or both?
The closest I get to this is that when we go for a walk, we can go via a route that includes large Edwardian mansions, 30s semis and an estate (modern but not recent) with tiny houses and absolute silence. DP never wants to go there as it’s depressing. I want to because of the calm, weird vibe.
I’m also mildly fascinated by those council estates that stretch backwards really far from the main road. You drive back and back and then come upon a crescent containing a mini parade of shops or one convenience shop. It’s weird knowing hardly anyone knows these shops exist apart from people in the adjacent streets.

Are you sure you’re not a character in a J.G. Ballard novel?

I mean, they could have been lost. Unless it was midnight and they were dressed like Jason what was scary about it?

A few months ago, I gave a friend a lift to a house on a new estate a few miles from where we live. We both commented on how it felt a bit weird and slightly surreal.

It's stuck between a busy main road and on the edge of a town, and although the houses varied in style and type of finish etc (some had pretend Tudor-style timbers and rendered upper-floors, some were brick with "leaded" windows etc), it just made it seem weirder than if they were all the same. And they all had those open front gardens, no fences or hedges between house and road, which made them seem really exposed.

The roads were all bendy, which may have been intended to make it more interesting (or possibly a road safety thing, to slow down traffic) but it just added to the slight weirdness. And we took a wrong turn somewhere on the way back, and ended up going through a 1960s estate, which had a much nicer feel about it.

But when I thought about it a bit more, it struck me that the estate where I live probably felt like that when it was built in 1946. Now, there are lots of mature trees, a lot of houses have been extended and in many different ways, some still have hedges, some have fences, some are completely open to allow for more parking, windows and doors have been replaced so there's variety.

Reflecting on it, I think it's just the newness that makes them seem weird.

I do think that there's a lack of imagination when it comes to design though.

Not sure if it's been mentioned already, but Alain de Botton presented a very interesting program on housing estates a few years ago. As I recall he pointed out how dull and architecturally unadventurous British housing was compared to countries like the Netherlands, where the houses and shared spaces are much more ergonomic and pleasant to live in.