Sprawling Potential With the rise of the ideal family came the development and construction of “plan book” homes. Society quickly flocked to the inward facing family styles and the perfectly designed home to fit their life. Housing development reached a point that middle class and lower middle class families had the opportunities to shape and design their homes. Developers and housing promoters schemed up elegant elevation and floor plans that depicted a grand house nestled into nature. These grand plans fell short as the reality of the suburbs hit most families. The sprawling population and demand for these houses were no match for the developers. Families began moving into smaller homes and lawns than what they dreamed of. The picturesque landscape with tall Victorian styles homes was quickly switched to small Levitt houses squeezed together, creating a monotonous ever growing monster known as the suburbs.
Seth Campbell S22 ADS8 Alford
Today, suburbs still dominate the edges of cities. They are redefining business centers, the use of downtowns, and house a majority of the middle class families. There are growing problems with the current suburban model including: sustainability problems, reliance on the use of cars, lack of income diversity, inflated housing market, lack of demographic diversity, and the overall lack of design. This design proposal looks to tackle some of these issues by attacking one of the biggest issues Americans are facing today, the Live/Work balance. By focusing on designing a better neighborhood that creates harmony and balance with individual’s Live/Work, the neighborhood will quickly start to fix other issues like lack of choice for housing and transportation. All of the design moves revolve around flexibility and presenting opportunities for anyone and everyone to be apart of the suburbs.
seth campbell
re-envisioning the suburban model
5th Year Master Thesis Design Proposal: Re-Envisioning the Suburban Model
1 of 10