A place to rest your head

There is a debate being conducted (a very polite debate, since it’s in the Irish Times) about the provision of apartment balconies, particularly in Dublin.The argument for them is that they give you access to outdoors without having to go down ten storeys.  The argument for not (necessarily) having them is that they add up to near £50,000 to costs.

Of course, you also get balconies on houses – bigger houses – in rural parts, where people have access to fresh air and Nature by opening the front door. But let’s confine our thoughts to city or town balconies.

We used to live in an apartment with a balcony  in Canada, and we were good friends with a couple in a different apartment block who also had a balcony. They used theirs a  bit, we rarely used ours, since the thought of youngsters squeezing through the rails and hurtling to their deaths was not a pleasant one. Had we been given a big drop in our monthly rent instead we’d have grabbed it.

Anyway, here’s a suggestion. Build apartment blocks that have balconies, and price them accordingly. Also build apartment blocks without balconies, and offer something more attractive and probably less expensive in their place.How about making the wall that would have featured a balcony into a really big and beautiful window, with glass which from outside is dark and inside provides light and sunshine? Or maybe make the rooms in the apartment bigger (not smaller, which is the latest wheeze the southern government has come up with).

It often strikes me that governments and even architects and builders don’t appreciate how much a home means to the inhabitants and the impact it has on their mental health. It’s the place in which people spend most of their day and night, if they’re apartment dwellers. Coming home to your apartment shouldn’t be into the Little Boxes sung of in the early 1960s. An Englishman’s home may be his castle; most of us would settle for a home that was a place of rest, sound-proof and reasonably stylish. And that big window would be a nice extra. 

Nil aon tinteán mar do thinteán féin  – There’s no fireside like your own fireside may now be outdated if taken literally, since central heating has come to be the rule for most people. But while the saying’s not literally relevant nowadays, it still makes serious  sense.