Topography and Scale

The architectural scales of my neighborhood vary tremendously. The block I live on is an example: it has mostly two-story terrace houses on the west side, but on the east side are one-story homes, two-storys like the west side, four- and five-story apartment buildings, and similar low-level office buildings. But just a few blocks away are five- to eight-story apartment buildings, mixed in with three-story houses, and 10- to 15-story buildings. Just a few more blocks away are 30-story buildings, and within a ten-minute walk is a 42-story building.

You would think that this would be an architectural disaster, but it's not, and that's because of the extreme topography here. A building may look like it is only one-story in front, but in the back it's three floors, because it is built on a hill. Near a park we walk to every day is a 6- or 8-story apartment building, that rises maybe two floors above street level, because it's built in a ravine.

Because the landscape is rolling up and down everywhere, small and large, short and tall, can all fit in together and still look pretty good. There are some exceptions of course: some pretty ugly stuff from the 1960's or 1970's, but it all fits in real well overall. There are some pix of all this on my flickr pages. Take a look:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/mgt33139/sets/72157604067232214/

Some of the pix in the set above have sailboats - well they're on Rushcutters Bay, and this satellite pic is the same scene from above, from an earlier entry ...

http://startnewsydney.blogspot.com/2008/03/yarranabbe-park.html