Better Suburban Futures

Abstract

The process of designing better suburban futures might result in the wholesale rejection of the category of suburbia itself, as some have called for, although we are not yet at that point. Suburbia and suburbs remain useful terms, despite the weight of stereotypes. The historic context for change outlined in a previous chapter suggests how suburbia is, and has been, a dynamic condition, as much a cultural state of mind as a set of physical patterns on the land. Readings of suburbia - as culture and as place - are continually shifting, shedding old paradigms and introducing new ones in succession over the past century and a half. We urgently need design professionals and their allies to work in a proactive mode for better, more resilient suburban futures. This chapter introduces promising paths forward.