I have always thought it would be nice if a little plaque was embedded in the kerb outside every house, dated and naming the architect and the builder.
It is a small thing that would acknowledge the work, both in terms of its design and its durability.
The value of a particular example of architecture is, naturally, in the eye of the beholder. But that’s part of the process of highlighting those responsible for the human-induced change to our environment, positive or negative.
I mention that idea because an extension of it came to mind when I attended the Committee for Perth’s Summit 2050, a forum on the future of the state’s capital and what needs to be done to accommodate an additional million people comfortably.
As it happens, I’ve been in or around a few of these things during the past few decades, so some of it is little bit like groundhog day. It is not hard to imagine what were considered our strengths – lifestyle, beaches, wealth – and our weaknesses of isolation, sprawl and over-reliance on mining.
I dare say rusted-on readers of this column will have heard my views on all of these subjects over the years.
Nevertheless, there were some new things to consider and, importantly, it was helpful to see how deeply issues such as red tape go when even those most focused the social impact side of the ledger bemoan delays to getting things done.
The Committee for Perth should be commended for its efforts. It had several hundred people in attendance, all presumably with a great interest in the future of this great city, which, if the diversity of accents was anything to go by, was a residence of choice for most.
The anti-sprawl contingent was big, as usual, but there is a growing awareness of how difficult the alternative – density – is to achieve.
Caught in the middle of these arguments are aspiring homeowners for whom supply is well short of demand.
I am not immune to the sprawl argument, but I don’t entirely buy into the idea that Perth should have a boundary, as was suggested.
There are, just, a few remaining suburbs that are green and leafy examples of how suburbia need not be the opposite of nature. In many cases, suburbs on the edge of our city are built on cleared land that was of marginal agricultural use.
It is more the nature of the urbanisation that disturbs most people rather than the actual spread of housing.
Cramming dwellings tightly in compact suburbs that lack backyards, nature areas, parks, smaller retail centres and other amenities seems to be what most people are against.
Of course density, even for single-level dwellings, results from the need to reduce the cost of land and the expense of taking roads and other utilities further out on the fringes.
We can be appalled at what is done in the name of efficiency but also profit.
You only need to tour the fringes of Perth to see some laudable attempts to blend residential living with bush, while elsewhere are awful, crowded places it is hard to believe anyone would recognise as encapsulating the Western Australian dream.
There is little recognition of who does this well and who doesn’t when it comes to development.
In Thornlie, a generally unremarkable suburb developed from the 1950s through to the 1980s, the Crestwood Estate is often highlighted as planning marvel that has stood the test of time.
Established in the mid 1970s by land developer Ron Sloan, it was supposed to be first stage of further such estates, but local government at the time pushed back on the long-term cost of servicing its eccentric layout.
Imagine if every housing estate prominently highlighted the town planner, the developer and the shareholders in the land syndicate that profited from it.
Much of the land that constitutes Perth’s recent and future sprawl is controlled by a very small subset of people in this town, invariably the wealthiest of its inhabitants, whose names appear across syndicate after syndicate.
I wonder how much it would change the design aspects of suburbs most distant from this town’s decision-making epicentre if those responsible for change also were recognised for its legacy.
