I want to preface this that I think public transportation and more dense urban housing is a pro-social idea. I would consider myself to be on the side of urbanism in general.

As I prepare to move from my semi-rural Colorado home to Seattle after finishing my CS degree this fall, I find myself grappling with a big question: in a future where more people live in dense urban housing without cars, will certain hobbies and hands-on endeavors go extinct or at least be relegated to those with the financial means to purchase extra space?

I’ve learned so much from my time in this house doing projects and building things; through it all the garage for me has been a space of infinite possibilities graciously provided by my mentors/hosts (old school engineers).

get a cool old CNC machine and need to move it inside and put it somewhere? -> garage

need 220V power? -> get some from the box in the garage

ill advised experiments with neon sign transformers? -> garage

do experiments which fill said garage with noxious fumes and need to air it out? -> garage

spill acid on the floor and need to dilute with water and not cause water damage? -> garage

need a big indoor place to fly drones? -> garage

build a hovercraft snow removal thing that never worked? -> garage

build a greenhouse and stage it? -> garage

fix an old whitewater raft and take it out rafting? -> garage + truck

covid screw your chemistry lab class? -> garage

It seems to me that the single family house is the boogyman of the urbanism movement and to some extent rightfully so:

  • car dependency bad
  • bad land use efficiency
  • heating and cooling a lone house is inefficient due to surface area exposed to elements

Although I see this, and generally agree with it, I have a fear within me that when I move—and indeed, if other people always lived in dense urban housing without cars—many of my formative experiences that relied on the garage as a space, and a car to pick up heavy items, will be lost to me and never found by others.

The most poignant argument I can think of is that urban areas have maker spaces, but in my experience, they have many rules about taking up space and restrictions on what is allowed and what is not—all very responsible given the shared nature of the space. Lastly, age requirements: in high school, I would have loved to go to a maker space, but it was 18+ due to liability reasons. This led to me setting up a lathe under some stairs at my parents’ house, which was never very easy to use.

In short, I love the idea of walking to the local shop and not having to drive, reducing my environmental footprint, and enjoying more socialization (seriously, we’re lonely out here). But at the same time, I worry that I will lose my autonomy to make things. Many of the condos I’ve looked at don’t have garages, or they only have parking garages that I doubt would welcome industrial equipment setups. You have limited power service and can’t break into the walls to route new cables.

As with any place where people live closely together, more restrictions are placed upon the population. These restrictions are generally shaped to avoid impacting most citizens’ lives and to keep those who don’t know what they’re doing from harming themselves or others. If I burn down my house out here, it’s mostly my problem. If I burn down a condo building, it could be a problem for everyone in it and the surrounding city.

What solutions are there to these problems? (Hey, you European folks!)

Are my fears grander than they need to be, or are these just the costs of the benefits I’ve mentioned?

  • stinerman [Ohio]English
    11•2 months ago

    There are maker spaces in some of the larger cities due to this. There is one in Columbus, but it never took off because…most people who live in Columbus have garages.

      • @VolkdittyEnglish
        3•2 months ago

        I was a member of one briefly, when I had the need for some woodshop stuff.

        The way they worked was you paid a flat monthly fee to be a member. …think it was around $65/monthly. If you wanted to use the woidshop you had to pay a one-time fee of $250 and either take a basic woodshop class (an afternoon) or talk to the woodshop guy and convince him you knew what you were doing. Then you had woodshop privileges so long as you paid your monthly fee.

        If you wanted to use the metal shop, another $250 to unlock metal shop privileges. Now your $65 a month gets you wood shop and metal shop. And so forth. They had a CNC machine, laser engraving, industrial sewing machines, 3D printers, powder coating…all kinds of stuff. You could also rent a locker or small storage space so you didn’t have to bring all your tools and supplies each time.

        I joined up just for a couple of short term projects that weren’t feasible to do on my own at home. The pricing was a little high for the, “eh, I’ll just pop in to do a little bit.” I think it was geared more towards serious hobbyists who would be there every weekend or people running a small-time Etsy business.

      • @[email protected]
        2•2 months ago

        I worked with a guy who banned together with a few of his college friends and made a sort of communal maker space. They rented a space, each had their own area and supplied the space with various tools that the others could use. They would occasionally rent out space for someone to come make something using their tools and sometimes experience. This would subsidize the rent for them to have space in which they could do as they please.

        This is a relatively common practice within the art world (they were furniture makers/designers) but I don’t see why this wouldn’t be just as if not more productive with a bunch of engineers. I also have often seen companies grow out of such arrangements. You share a space, start working collaboratively, and before you know it you’ve got a shared product to sell.

        The other added benefit is there’s always someone around to help you unload, setup and be excited about that CNC you found.