I grew up in a city of mostly rowhomes and I love them. Plan on buying one one day.
You still get walk-ability, sense of community and good population density (not as good as a high-rise but still good), but also more privacy, and the space is more conducive to raising a family than an apartment. Also they’re cute as fuck and people can paint them different colors and have cool little gardens on their porches and stuff.
Shared walls is not a goal.
If they’re soundproofed well enough, it’s totally fine. Yeah, most new construction has paper thin walls, so sharing walls with neighbors sucks absolute asshole currently, no arguments there. But having lived in an old brick apartment building with super thick walls one time, I couldn’t hear my neighbors ever. It rocked. That, in my mind, is absolutely the goal: high density housing (with very soundproof walls) and tons of green space surrounding the housing, with convenient stores, transit, and entertainment options, all in easy walking distance. That sounds so utopic, and yet if we changed our civilization’s priorities, it could absolutely happen, we have the technology. I want it so badly
Meanwhile in Germany you have noise standards that constructions have to keep.
sounds nice
Sharing walls is more energy efficient.
Brick row homes usually have full masonry between them, sometimes two layers, so you can’t hear a thing. Only time I hear my neighbors is if they’re out front, through my front door.
If that’s the case then sure. I’ve only lived in paper thin wall apartments.
The issue isn’t with density itself, it’s with cost-cutting and labor-cutting methods of building that give you something cheap really quickly.
Single-unit houses allow you to temporarily ignore the flaws, as long as you have plenty of land per household, unlimited fossil fuels, and unlimited raw materials for renovation. And we really don’t have any of those.
Which should honestly only be built in times of hardship, but that’s capitalism for you
Even apartments can be build better. Concrete subfloor units with proper baffling (air gap between units, also makes utility work easier) means I’ve only heard neighbors when they were doing things like using a drill.
That sounds really nice, I’ve never lived in a building like that but would like to
I lived in something like this until recently and you’d be surprised how little I heard of my neighbours (basically nothing except their piano very faintly sometimes). Good walls can go a long way I guess
As someone with shared walls, it absolutely is / was / will continue to be a goal. The best, I’d say. I don’t hear anything, its double brick so fairly fireproof, but the form factor is self-insulating so in the summer and winter my climate control bills are way lower than single family houses since the only surfaces against the outside are the front and back walls and the roof.
You’re right, it’s a necessity if we want to live in a sustainable world. It’s also human nature - we are a communal species.
Good solid masonry shared walls are no problem at all. You get more noise etc from non-adjacent units with sound bouncing off other buildings. And the reverse, in terms of privacy. Not to mention vehicle traffic and general people sounds. And in my experience, above/below if the floors/ceilings are not constructed to a similar quality. They tend to be wood/plaster and it is something landlords skimp on maintaining; not upgrading the insulation, not keeping the floorboards nailed down.
Also have good fire containment properties. A friend of mine’s bedroom sadly suffered a huge fire and every single thing they owned was completely incinerated. The building was heavy masonry construction with a quality firedoor which was closed at the time. So the rest of the apartment only had a bit of smoke damage and some water; they all kept living there. None of the other units in the building were affected at much if at all.