NewVistas Livability and design excellence

Value of views

NewVistas is so named because all apartment windows and community buildings offer beautiful, green views, something that would be extremely hard to pull off in modern urban designs. The built-up area is quite small compared to the expansive hinterland, giving the people great unobstructed views of the hinterland and beyond. Unlike in the modern real estate market, where such spaces would cost a fortune, everyone has a great view, so there is no premium rent to pay.

People are willing to pay for more to have clear views. Looking into the blank walls of other buildings, or high walls, considerably pushes down the price of houses. ¹

Traffic congestion

Traffic congestion is one of the biggest issues that city dwellers cite as the reason why cities are less pleasant to give. Congestion means more time and money is spent commuting. ² It also means that these vehicles, which predominantly use fossil fuel, are a major course of air pollution. In 2014, Beijing had to remove up to 330,000 cars off the roads to address congestion and emission problems. ³ Big cities in India have had to grapple with an ever-deteriorating air quality, principally caused by cars. Air pollution matters. Outdoor air pollution has been cited as a major contributor to the worldwide disease burden. It is pervasive and notoriously difficult to evade. ⁴ It should therefore be obvious that a more livable city must address pollution.

It is no wonder that countries as diverse and as far apart as Cape Town, ⁵ New York, ⁶ Berlin, and Tokyo, have been aggressively encouraging residents to use bicycles and constructing pedestrian-friendly roads to reduce the reliance on cars. The result, as reported elsewhere on this website, has been positive in three respects: less congestion, fewer emissions, and a healthier populace. All this means less money spent on the road and healthcare.

Cars are so necessary for cities because people have to travel great distances to work. For instance, Houston-based workers commute 24 miles each day to work, spending more than $174,000 per annum on this alone. ⁷ More than 85% (65,541) of the city’s workers drive to work, meaning more than 11.4 billion is spent annually on commuting. This is besides the cost of acquiring the vehicles in question. Considering that Houston is the ninth-worst ozone polluter in the US, ⁸ it is likely that a Houston resident will also be faced with medical bills at some point in their residence in the city.

If it were possible for a city to significantly reduce, or even eliminate motorized traffic, the benefits would be enormous. NewVistas’ design and principles provide for just that. The community is fully walkable, eliminating the need to use a car. Additionally, each participant has a “mule”, an automated device that can transport them, and their luggage across the community. This results in massive financial savings, but it also gives something more important – a more livable community, where the air quality matches the views, and where people can reasonably expect to live longer.

The space that roads take is huge. This pace could be used for other purposes that improve people’s quality of life, including parks, gardens, and other public spaces. ⁹

Urban amenities and public spaces

The ease of accessing amenities such as a greengrocer, professional services, schools, and convenience stores is a major influencer on why people choose to live in some places, and not others. As Natalie Allen notes in her article on the importance of urban amenities,[10]  An “urban experience” can only be recreated if people can access these services, which they consider basic, as conveniently as possible. She also cites the ability to access transport systems, such as mass transit buses or subways, as another way that an urban experience is recreated.

Research shows that as work-at-home continues to appeal to an increasing number of people, there is a feeling of being isolated from urban amenities. Those who work downtown will easily access some conveniences that would be deemed obvious, but not so easy for people who live in suburban areas. Therefore, as important as a home is, so too is its location and the nature of amenities that surround it.

Urban spaces are both public and private. Public amenities include parks, pedestrian walks, and other services or spaces that government authorities can provide. The World Economic Forum has given examples of cities that, after providing enhanced public spaces for their residents, have seen significant improvements in people’s quality of life. Some of the metrics the forum cites include a reducing crime rate, better business performance, and a more vibrant cultural expression by city residents, in cities such as Medellin in Colombia, Cape Town in South Africa, and Lahore in Pakistan. ¹⁰

In today’s world, residing in cities has become more of a necessity than a choice between living in an urban center or the countryside. As cities become bigger, without the attendant planning to make them conducive to hosting a growing population, congestion, and a deteriorating quality of life are often the consequences, as seen in several South Asian cities. It is impossible to put a limit on how many people will occupy a city. At the same time, it is extremely difficult to regulate the number of people who will inhabit a city, especially based on their profession or trade.

It is therefore something of a revelation that it is possible to build a city, a mansion, in which there is an optimal mix of urban amenities, and where there is no oversupply or scarcity of such services. This is one of the important aspects of the NewVistas community. As participants are admitted into the system, they do so based on their profession, such that, for instance, we do not have an oversupply of masons, and no carpenters. The village president will on occasion identify a profession that is undermanned, say a scarcity of doctors. It will go through the motions of attracting a desirable person into the community, thereby ensuring an equilibrium.

The community’s residential/commercial blocks are constructed with maximum versatility in mind. Modern cities comprise commercial downtowns and residential-only suburbs, a factor that leads to urban sprawl, as people look out for land where they can build bigger, freestanding houses with neighbors being a considerable distance away. However, NewVistas adopts a mixed-use approach, where buildings can be used for commercial and residential purposes at different times of the day. This approach brings all the amenities that a person needs to their doorstep, without the hustle and bustle of modern megacities.

Cities that are entirely walkable, without motorized traffic, with all amenities at hand, and with an optimal mix of businesses and residents will lead to a high quality of life, featuring convenience, low or non-existent crime, fresh air, and great views, and more economic productivity for everyone.

1. According to Market Watch, a house with an unobstructed elevated view can cost as much as 100% more than its original cost, due to the value of these views. When a house becomes more than just a place where you want to sleep, and into a place that will afford you some luxury, the views of the scenery around is an important part of the purchasing decision. Units are hidden away, or with uninspiring views of the next building’s walls will fetch less, and have less demand.[↩]
2. According to the UN, cities that have been unable to deal with congestion have seen their economic competitiveness go down. Cost of transport, the energy spent traveling, air pollution, and road accident incidence can all be quantified. If they are added to the cost of doing business, the more congested a city is, the less likely it will be to attract investors and tourists.[↩]
3. According to China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection, around 7.8% of the country’s vehicles do not meet the set emission standards. In 2019, the country announced plans to remove more than 6 million cars of these cars from the road. Further, the city of Hangzhou instituted measures to restrict the issuance of new car registration, subjecting new cars to lotteries and auctions.[↩]
4. Turner et al (2020) find that there is a clear link between lung cancer and outdoor pollution. Additionally, the authors blame outdoor air pollution for a large and increasing number of respiratory illnesses, especially in fast-developing countries such as India.[↩]
5. See news article on Western Cape’s government’s drive to reduce car use in favor of bicycles to curb congestion.[↩]
6. New York City Council recently passed legislation that will see $1.7 billion invested to improve cyclists’ and pedestrians’ safety.[↩]
7. Greater Houston covers a large area – up to 9400 square miles. It has a population of 7.1 million people, translating to more than 0.84 acres per person. This space, including roads, parks, and others, is simply unnecessary for a person, and more so, for a larger number of people, who will share resources such as a road or a park. The urban sprawl necessitates the large distances that people have to commute to work. Regular commuters, therefore, need a car, to enhance their convenience since public transport may not be always reliable.[↩]
8. Houston’s air quality is considered “good” by US standards. Only 22 days on average surpass the acceptable range of good air.[↩]
9. In his 2020 article, Gossling asserts that reclaiming public space from roads is justifiable on environmental, economic, and social/ health grounds. However, one of the issues that governments will have to contend with is the convenience that the automobile gives in a massive urban sprawl, as well as the symbolic value of the car – it is a status symbol, more than just being used for transport.[↩]
10. Natalie Allen states that, “dwellings are important, but so too is the location of the dwelling”, to highlight the importance of a good neighborhood in ensuring a good standard of life. Taken another way, a house is not only the cost of the material used to construct and outfit it. It is also a factor of its location and the amenities that surround it. Increasingly, people are having to choose between suburban and urban lifestyles. It is becoming easier for people to opt for the urban lifestyle, even when it means smaller houses and no backyards.[↩]