Complex planners, what were you thinking?

I am one of the lucky ones. I owned property before I was 30, with a little help from the parentals. Yes, it’s a tiny piece of real estate, but it’s mine. I’m not paying off someone else’s bond each month; the money I spend goes towards eventual ownership.

I’ve owned my little shoebox for six years. For six years I’ve lived in a complex, and I have few issues. Notwithstanding the issues around complex rules and parental figures on the board of trustees that make me feel as if I’m still a teenager living at home, I have issues with the people who plan these living spaces.

In my complex, the 120-odd units are a mixture of one-, two- and three-bedrooms, allowing for occupants in all stages of life. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but my objection stems from the layout of the units. I don’t know about you, but it makes logical sense to me to group like units together. 

So, the single people, or childless couples would mostly choose a one-bedroom unit, where the likelihood is that everyone would be fairly quiet. The families with young children would mostly choose the two-bedroom units, where the kids are small and noisy. And the larger units would be snapped up by older families with kids who need their own rooms. There would likely be high levels of activity with friends visiting and TVs blaring.

Instead, what I live with is the odd one-bedroom rammed in between four or five family units, giving me the whole spectrum of familial life stages – I’ve got crying babies and tantruming toddlers in my block, along with a very sweet, quiet senior citizen. All because of stupid planning.

I’m not sure who thought it was a good idea to put a swimming pool in a complex, although it seems to be a standard feature in complexes from the beginning of time. Perhaps when fewer families raised their kids cheek by jowl with 20 other families, or when parks were still viable play areas. I don’t know. What I do is that no one wants the units next to the pool because of the noise. And I’ve never, not once, felt the urge to take a dip in a ‘public’ pool.

It would make more sense to use this space for a proper playground. The kind that seven-year-olds can be trusted to play in without supervision. The kind with swings and a jungle gym and a slide. The kind that moms or nannies can take toddlers to play in the sand pit. The kind where kids can let off steam and burn off some of the energy gained by litres of soft drink consumption. Ideally, this play area would be in the centre of young family units, allowing for easy access.

In the centre, or off to one side, of the older family units I would like to see an outside area for the teens. Somewhere with concrete seating, and bushes for privacy. Where the kids could hang out with their friends away from the prying eyes of parents. To get some space from their tiny bedrooms. To make friends with other kids in the complex.

We all complain that kids spend too much time in front of computer and TV screens, yet we don’t do much to encourage them outside. This is a simple solution to start reversing the inside epidemic.  

With the decline of safe, free green spaces in Joburg suburbs, and the busy schedules of working parents, it seems insane that these spaces are incorporated into the complexes that house tens of thousands of families.

Then again, if someone can’t make money off of it, what’s the point, right?