For most people the relatively small living spaces of OA-Cities will be the biggest concession to make.

A smaller living space could be a blessing in disguise..!  

Given the choice between a house in the outer suburbs or a small city centre apartment, young couples with kids would choose the house.    But houses tend to be miles from where one works and shops or plays, or from where friends and family live – thus requiring hours of to-ing and fro-ing every day.!  Houses also require far more MAINTENANCE and CLEANING than flats, and GARDENS to be tended – who is to do all that?   Houses also need a lot of furniture and furnishings and other trappings – carpets, curtains, bedding, accessories, artwork and mirrors to fill the large bare walls, etc., all of which takes TIME and ENERGY to source and costs a lot of MONEY.   And, unless built to expensive German “PassivHaus” standards (very rare) most UK houses require HEATING for about 8 months of the year.  Then there is all the WASTED SPACE – rarely or occasionally used “spare rooms”, garages and store-rooms half-full of junk.

That said, it could be argued that living in a small inner-city apartment with 2 or 3 hyperactive sprogs would be just as stressful as all that commuting.  This might be true in a conventional city centre which, these days, are considered VERY UNSAFE for kids to roam about freely.  In fact, any parents who allowed their kids complete freedom to roam and wander at will in a city centre would be considered very IRRESPONSIBLE and would probably find themselves in trouble with child-protection authorities.

Oasis Cities, on the other hand, would offer many facilities and exciting places – close to home – where kids could play and wander and keep occupied and, most importantly, in complete SAFETY and SECURITY..!

A well-designed 30m2 apartment is adequate for a couple

Most of our homes have a lot of wasted space and, when compared with the space-saving design features of luxury mobile homes and cruising boats, are very un-imaginatively designed.  Most people dream about living on a luxury cruiser, but one with 30m2 of living space would cost many times the price of a new inner-city apartment of the same size.

The advantage of an elevator bed is that its out of sight and ready to use

Beds could fold back into a wall (murphy bed) or rise to the ceiling (elevator bed) or simply convert into a lounger.   In this way, bedroom and lounge could become the same space – which makes a lot of sense since the TV is usually in the lounge but many people also like having a TV in the bedroom too..!  Why have 2 TV’s when one will do?

Living in small spaces discourages frivolous purchases and forces you to think twice about whether you REALLY need certain things.  And you probably don’t..!