Home on a Hillside

A few unobtrusive individual homes are still built, some as rental vacation homes around lakes and beauty spots, others as isolated homes in rural areas for the dedicated countrysiders, or for those who seek especial peace and solitude for a particular period or reason. But most people on the New Earth live on the slopes of an artificial hill-town with residences on the outer slopes and inside, all the facilities of work, commerce leisure and entertainment a town or city should provide. This has come about entirely by choice, for the simple reason that the hillside home can provide every resident with three things now considered most important in a residence: privacy, an uninterrupted view, and vertical airspace for a garden terrace, while also offering instant walking-distance access to the full range of urban facilities.

Privacy is important. The spirit of the New Age is one of cooperation and open-ness; it is normal for strangers to talk together in cafés and public gardens as if they had always known one another, and people often invite to their homes strangers they have met by chance, with whom they find a natural affinity. It may therefore seem something of a contradiction to observe that in their homes most people value their privacy, peace and quiet. But it is widely understood that 'you can only give what you already have', and in the privacy of the home one can develop that inner peace and wisdom which makes for good company and good conversation.

Privacy and peace are assured by the basic layout of homes and access, which places street passageways behind, rather than in front of the individual hillside residences. There are indeed a few outside 'ring' walkways where people can take a stroll and enjoy the views, and some residents choose to live facing these outer walkways. But the majority enjoy their own unobstructed, totally private terrace and view, with their indoor access 'street' behind them. Once inside their homes, residents have complete frontal privacy, with privacy between next-door neighbors on the garden-terraces assured by the planted sloping dividing walls on either side.

The second essential in a home, enjoyed by all hilltown residents, is the unobstructed view from their hillside garden terraces over miles of countryside, with its rolling hills and streams, clumps of woodland, and perhaps just the occasional glimpse of another green hilltown merging almost imperceptibly into the background scene.

The third essential is vertical airspace. The slopes of the artificial hills provide for every home a terrace garden open to the sky – as opposed to a high-rise apartment balcony which is open only to the front and perhaps the sides, with vertigo-views to the ground below! The generously-sized terraces are warm and sheltered miniature gardens, ideal for relaxing or for meals – most people like to eat 'out' on their terrace unless the weather is unsuitable.

Since the terraces are sheltered, residents are able to grow plants and flowers that are even more exotic than those in the parks or public gardens. Terraces are generally paved in varied finishes and colors simulating natural stone, with ample space for seating and dining; large terracotta plant pots containing flowers or perhaps small fruiting trees will often be arranged on the paved surface, with more permanent flower beds built-in along the side walls. There is always a low earth-bed at the front of the terrace where people grow small bushes, flowers and trailing greenery. This planting at the front of the terrace provides essential privacy for the levels below.

In this particular pyramid hilltown all of the main vertical dividing walls are set at least 40 feet apart, determining the width of the homes and their terraced gardens. There is nonetheless a choice of size in home and terrace; half the levels have single-floor homes with 30-foot deep terraces and the other half are two-story homes with larger terraces of 60-foot depth.

The single-floor homes usually have a 20-foot wide living room with two 10-foot wide 'personal rooms' at the side looking onto the same garden terrace. The two-story homes generally feature a living room and dinning area with an adjacent den/workspace at terrace level, plus anywhere between two and four 'personal rooms' on the upper level.

At the rear of the home, where there is no natural light other than that piped down through 'light-tubes' from the divider wall cavities, sound-insulated rooms offer ample workspace which many people use for constructive hobbies. Since these areas are at the back of the apartment, some people like to have windows looking onto the interior 'street'. These are usually craftspeople who undertake work on a limited commercial basis like sculptors, artists, or musical instrument-makers (yes, people still play hand-crafted wind, string and keyboard instruments!). Passers-by can watch the work in progress or perhaps see a small display of the items crafted. Customers who want to buy these more specialized products will not mind making the special journey to the home-workshop; craft products which are more in demand are displayed and sold in the centralized display and shopping areas for customers' greater convenience of access.

The element of privacy within the home itself is much respected in the New Age, peace and quiet being considered important for personal 'rejuvenation'. It is recognized that everyone needs time for 'self', time to reassemble one's thoughts, to review the day, and of course time for quiet contemplation which in the New Age forms an essential part of everyone's daily activities. Although many families live together, often with three or even four generations sharing one large home, there is still privacy for everyone, and that privacy is always respected.

Every family member has a 'personal room', a sort of miniature apartment, the privacy of which is never invaded, save by explicit invitation. The personal room is in effect a bed-sitting-room, with its own bathroom at the rear plus a small kitchen facility where meals can be prepared as required. The bed is arranged to blend in with the sitting-room furniture as a sofa during the day, to be made up as a bed at night with the bedding stored underneath. At the front of the personal apartment a sitting area might be furnished with a table or desk and reclining chair. In the two-floor homes each personal room will have a small balcony overlooking the family terrace below, and at the rear, its own separate access through a shared rear hall into the interior 'street'.

Quite often individual family members will 'invite' the rest of the family to their personal rooms for a chat or even a meal. Normally however families eat together and spend time together in the larger family rooms – though there is not the presumption that families must always be together for every occasion. Food can be prepared at home; alternatively one can 'call down' to the extensive food preparation services in the large central kitchens for 'autodelivery' of anything from cleaned and prepared fruits to complete dishes ready-to-eat in a variety of different styles.

Whether for individual personal use or family group entertainment, a vast catalog of documentaries, feature films, and recorded music from the past as well as new compositions, can be selected through the home video terminal; samples can be viewed or heard, and a chosen performance 'ordered' for immediate viewing. The necessary material is then transmitted along a fiber-optic landline and downloaded into the home computer as a complete film or musical score which can then be viewed on a large wall-mounted flat screen.

Musical scores come ready to play with their own settings of instrumentation and tempo. But built-in software in the home unit allows listeners to select their own preferred tempi and add or change the detail of musical phrasing at will, while databanks of different sampled instruments and electronically generated sounds allow listeners to make their own choice of instrumentation. Listening to music in the home can thus become a more creative process; the listener can select any desired instrumentation and 'conduct' the music in the very real sense of defining tempi and phrasing.

Most of the numerous activities taking place in the hilltown's interior theatres and concert halls, performance and lecture rooms can also be accessed in the home through a form of cable vision.

A Varied Hillscape

While a completely private home is generally preferred, there are those who like a little more social contact. Their choice might be a home facing onto one of the two or three Promenades which run around the outside of the Hilltown, so they can 'potter about' in their front gardens and exchange greetings with passers-by.

Others might go for an area known locally as 'The Quarry'. Imagine that a section of the hillside has been removed from one of the corner sloping surfaces of the pyramid – just like a quarry in fact. This forms a little square, the 'quarry floor', which is flanked and overlooked by four or five vertical stories of single room apartments with balconies. The quarry apartments are popular with people living alone; some will be youngsters experiencing a new-found independence, others perhaps older people who no longer have a family around them.

The Quarry's own little square is treated almost like a private club by its surrounding residents. They can peer over their balconies or call down to see if anyone wants a game of chess; the square's flower beds are tended by a couple of local residents; and the café with its outside tables serves most of the residents as a communal dining/living or clubroom!

Here they chat, check the news, have a meal or a snack. The wide variety of ages makes for lively conversation, and from time to time a 'stranger' happens upon this little neighborhood square and is always made welcome. Indeed it is surprising how many 'secret' corners and alleyways there are in these hilltowns, both inside and out. In many of the hilltowns, people who have lived there for years are still making new discoveries!

All hilltown homes are leased at low rates from the Community Corporation which oversaw the planning and construction of the hilltown and which has subsequent responsibility for its maintenance, though the work itself is usually undertaken under competitive contract by specialized firms. The highest standards of cleanliness and general maintenance both inside the hilltown's public areas and in the surrounding parkland can always be expected.

Overall planning at County and Regional level ensures that there is always an adequate supply of vacant accommodation of all sizes, making it easy for people to move about, especially as furnishings tend to be simple and much is built-in. Some people move quite frequently simply for a change of scene, while others elect to stay put in 'their' community all their lives! Another motive for moving home reflects changing needs as families grow larger, then smaller; though once again tastes vary, and some families keep their larger home, opening it to visitors when the children 'leave the nest'.

There is enormous variety in the types and sizes of home available, even within what might be imagined as the constraints of the artificial hill. The 'hills' vary too. There are formal cones and pyramids, though these are usually nearer the county centers. In the remoter country areas people prefer more 'organic' architecture and here the artificial hills are varied in shape, contoured to fit the topography, curved around a corner of a lake, or perhaps 'grafted' onto the side of an existing hill. All of these artificial hills are amply covered with greenery and flowers.

One interesting exception to the 'greenery rule' is a hilltown built into an existing hill overlooking the sea in an area where the rocky landscape provides little vegetation. This hilltown's sides are covered by a haphazard-looking jumble of houses of different sizes and shapes, interspersed with terraces, squares and little winding paths, the whole colored white in the style of an old Greek island village. Solid front doors leading into homes or private courtyards are in simple blues and greens, and citrus trees with their seasonal perfumed flowers followed by oranges and lemons abound in both private courtyards and the little public squares.

People have put out pots of flowers on their balconies, and outside their homes in the narrow winding paths and streets. In many of the public squares small cafés serve food and drink at rustic tables under trailing vines. At its lower end where the village meets the sea, a small harbor provides a home for rental pleasure boats, while small craft shops and cafés with their tables under sun umbrellas line the quayside. The town attracts quite a few visitors!

Privacy, a view, and vertical airspace: these are the requirements of a perfect home, features offered by virtually every one of the hillside apartments. But in addition to the requirements for the home itself, humans also have a social side: we need contact with others for work, trade, culture, entertainment, and simple conversation. And if these facilities are to be of any practical use they must be closely and conveniently to hand: a few moments' walk or ride away, not half-an-hour's stop-go drive through polluted air on a crowded road with parking problems at the end of it! Here again the hilltown scores on pure convenience, with all its commercial, professional, and recreational facilities concentrated right there in the hillside's interior core.

Indeed with such a wealth of attractive facilities so readily available, less time is now spent in the home itself, mainly because there is so much going on around it. The numerous facilities inside the hilltown in and around the central atrium, the roof top promenade areas and the beckoning countryside provide plenty of incentive to be 'out and about'.

Though many people enjoy going out into the surrounding countryside with its numerous market gardens and fruit and nut groves to pick their own fresh produce, much is also communally picked for restaurant facilities and shops, and this is processed in the large and well equipped kitchens looking out over parkland at the base of the pyramid where prepared dishes are made for home or restaurant use.

Surrounding Parkland

With the varied yet generally milder, more equable climate of the New Earth, combined with the increased leisure time at people's disposal and their great love of healthy pursuits, fresh air and the outdoors, it is hardly surprising that the residents enjoy and consider as equally important the facilities existing outside and around their Hilltown. Indeed as much attention was given to the outdoor surroundings as to the design of the town itself, and the immediate countryside offers a thoughtfully planned selection of facilities.

Access to the 'great outdoors' could not be simpler for the Hilltown residents. Periodic breaks in the housing units allow for public top-to-bottom walkways winding through treed and landscapes slopes. Or for quicker access the internal sloping elevators terminate at the base of the Hilltown permitting direct walk-out into the surrounding parkland. By its very nature and concept, this is a very compact town; there is no suburban sprawl gradually eating its way across those 'greenfield sites' so much beloved of developers in the old Earth days! This and similar New Earth towns resemble the old fortified towns of medieval times: town on one side of the city wall, open country on the other!

The extensive park area immediately surrounding the Hilltown is laid out semi-formally for quiet relaxation, and people can be seen strolling along the paths enjoying the trees, the green grass and profusion of colorful scented flowers. Although the air is good everywhere on the New Earth, whether in buildings or outside, here in the park it is especially relaxing; for this the townsfolk can thank the many different species of pine trees which are known to give off beneficial emanations. On each side of the smooth paths molded from a glasslike material resembling cream-colored marble, the emerald-green grass is dotted with patches of tiny blue and purple flowers no bigger than the blades of grass. The colors of all the flowers are brilliant in their depth and intensity, and the scent is everywhere, sometimes almost overpowering, particularly when the sun is shining again after a rain shower.

In one area several rows of chairs are grouped in front of an old-style Victorian bandstand screened by trees at its rear. An announcement states that a local youth orchestra will perform 'for your pleasure' during the afternoon.

There are many small pavilions and open music auditoriums scattered around this extensive urban park, some circular and surmounted by crystal domes, others in the shape of small transparent pyramids or in the style of simple classical Greek structures, none higher than the surrounding trees, each one different, yet all in their own way blending into and enhancing the park. Quite a few are covered by rich greenery and flowers trailing from their terraces. Some of these buildings are cafés, sport facilities or garden and plant centers.

At its outer edges the semi-cultivated and formally planned Town Park gives way to wedges of informal parkland alternating with market-gardening agriculture or fruit and nut groves. Although the market gardens are supervised and tended by professional agriculturalists, most of the produce is self-picked by the town's residents themselves, who enjoy the experience of being amongst the plant life; they also take the opportunity, considered important in the New Age, to thank the plants for their generous gifts. This appreciation is carried through to the careful preparation of food and the tradition of eating slowly, consciously savoring the raw materials and their preparation.

The expression of gratitude to the Universe is a frequent theme in the New Age – and relaxed appreciation of one's food also makes for better digestion!

There is quite a choice of footpaths leading off into the 'real' countryside, each one having a small signpost showing its destination, distance and walking time; some of the paths are designed as circular routes, again with walking times given for the circuit. Walking is a favorite leisure activity, particularly as there is so much beautiful countryside to enjoy and ample leisure time to enjoy it, while the less dense, higher-vibration Etheric lightness of being causes less fatigue over long distances. A popular outing is to walk to the next village or scenic spot, perhaps enjoy some light refreshment then return home by one of the Rural Lines that fan out from the hilltown.

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