Tag: suburbs | ArchDaily

U.S. Pavilion at 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale Showcases ‘PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity'

Nour Fakharany — Thu, 12 Jun 2025 04:30:00 +0000

The Fay Jones School of Architecture and Design at the University of Arkansas, in collaboration with DesignConnects and the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, has been chosen by the U.S. Department of State's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs to represent the United States at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale. The selected theme, "PORCH: An Architecture of Generosity," explores the timeless architectural and cultural significance of the American porch, showcasing its continued relevance as a space for connection, inclusivity, and civic engagement.

The Lawn as Battleground: How Domestic Landscaping Became a Symbol of American Identity

Maria-Cristina Florian — Thu, 03 Oct 2024 07:30:00 +0000

The almost cliché image of the white picket fence has become synonymous with the ideals of the American Dream. Behind the fence, there is invariably a perfectly manicured lawn, a green carpet upon which life can unfold. This image and its associations are not, however, accidental. In her book, "Domesticity at War", Beatriz Colomina notices that, since the Second World War, the lawn has taken a central space in the imagination of the country, becoming first a in order to make space for diversity, both social and ecological. symbol of the stability of the homes soldiers were hoping to return to, offering a space where those at home could still perform duties for the nation, and, after the war, propagating the image of an idealized lifestyle, one maintained with hard work and dedication. In recent years, the lawn has emerged once again as a site of conflict, this time between those hoping to preserve this idealized image, and those seeking to break the uniformity in order to make space for diversity, both social and ecological.

Lessons From the Porch: Building Community at the Domestic Threshold

Carla Bonilla Huaroc — Sun, 31 Mar 2024 07:30:00 +0000

Positioned between the streetscape of a neighborhood and the privacy of the interior of a house lies the porch. Taking on the role of an entrance, a window to ponder out of, a gathering spot, and a stage, the porch has come to represent community and identity for many neighborhoods in the United States. Made of various stylistic elements of different sizes and shapes, these tie together neighborhoods by creating an interstitial space between the home and the street, weaving together the family life inside the house and the public life outside it, and creating a space between the private and public for both serendipitous encounters and for pausing. The porch has often been displayed in film and literature as the stage of profound and life-changing conversations, representing a comfortable threshold between the domestic and public realm in which to linger.

Our Cities Aren’t Dead Yet!

Nicholas Dagen Bloom — Fri, 03 Nov 2023 03:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

What Makes a Good Suburb?

Kaley Overstreet — Tue, 07 Feb 2023 04:00:00 +0000

Suburbs have experienced a sort of renaissance over the last decade. During the COVID-19 pandemic, people fled urban cores in favor of open space and decentralized amenities. For some people, the word “suburb” or “suburbia” flashes images of manicured lawns and rows of identical homes, but what makes a successful suburb may have more in common with cities than you might think.

The City Outskirts: Suburbia and Low-Cost Housing

Matthew Maganga — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 05:00:00 +0000

In urban design, suburbs can be a contentious topic. That is in part because the term lends itself to nebulous and ever-changing definitions. In its simplest form, the suburbs are residential communities within commuting distance, located a fair bit away from the heart of metropolitan areas. The American context sees suburbs viewed with some hostility, with racist ‘redlining’ practices a dark legacy to particular suburbs in the country. In a more superficial sense, American suburbs have often been criticised for their uniformity in appearance – portrayed as soulless dwellings absent of a sense of community.

The Evolution of the House Plan in the United States: Post-war Era

Agustina Coulleri, Hana Abdel & Clara Ott — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 04:00:00 +0000

Following the Second World War, United States veterans and citizens were seeking a fresh start, a rightful place to live out their modern American dream. With a significant housing shortage looming around and fast-growing families, solutions had to be found to provide equitable living means for all. The development of new construction techniques and propagation of easy building materials promised an age of prosperity.

What Will Happen to Cities if Everyone Keeps Working From Home?

Kaley Overstreet — Sun, 27 Jun 2021 07:30:00 +0000

Our lives in urban centers have been completely upended over the last 16 months. As we look into the near future, some of us begin to experience the call back into our workplaces and experience the awakening of a long slumber of cities, it’s without a doubt that life as we knew it will never be the same. While some on the extreme end have been asking “will we even need cities?” (to which the answer is a very definite yes), how will cities change if we continue to move forward in this digital era of work and life that was accelerated by the pandemic?

How Did the Evolution of Women's Role in Society Change the Built Environment?

Christele Harrouk — Mon, 08 Mar 2021 04:00:00 +0000

In theory and practice, in the modern era, the idea of spatial separation between home and work was related to the traditional sexual division of men and women, and of their role in life. Going back to the earliest feminist thinking in architecture, in western industrialized communities, we are elaborating in this article on women’s changing role in the 20^th century and its impact on the space we experience today.

Corviale, a One-Kilometer Residential Complex in Rome

Susanna Moreira — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 05:00:00 +0000

The Corviale housing complex, located in the south-western periphery of Rome, was designed in the 1970s as a solution to the growing number of dormitory districts in the Roman suburbs, caused by the significant population increase between the 1950s and 1970s - when the population grew from approximately 1.6 million to 2.7 million inhabitants - followed by suburban sprawl.

Are Suburbs the New Cities? Exploring the Future of Suburban Development in the United States

Kaley Overstreet — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 07:30:00 +0000

Suburbs as we know them are changing forever. Partially exacerbated by the effects of the pandemic, residents are leaving cities in droves in search of more favorable living conditions where more space, privacy, and affordability offers what some consider to be a more comfortable lifestyle. But as time goes on, and development sprawls, it’s harder to tell where cities end and suburbs begin.

The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

Josh Stephens — Fri, 08 Jan 2021 04:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published on Common Edge.

Why It's Not Quite Time to Give Up City Living

Kaley Overstreet — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 04:00:00 +0000

As the COVID-19 global pandemic has unfolded over the last several months, stories of people cooped up in crowded cities and concerned about their future have anecdotally popped up across the internet. When the virus first arrived, it was common for people to escape to their beach-side homes, or to return to their parent’s house for more space and a sprawling yard.

An Architecture of Turbulence

RZLBD - Reza Aliabadi — Mon, 08 Jul 2019 12:15:00 +0000

A single family house may often have been considered as a very small pixel within any urban context, but the fact is, on average more than fifty percent of the urban fabric is being shaped by these tiny small pixels. It is well said by Tadao Ando: “The house is the building type that can change society.” Thus, this is how a client, a developer, a builder, an architect, or a designer could or should be responsible and willingly participate in a collective effort to shape a better urban context.

6 Modern Building Types That Will Soon Disappear Forever

Yiling Shen — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 08:30:00 +0000

Architecture is often seen as something which provides a place-marker in history, reflecting the zeitgeist of an era. But how do we design architecture in a world that is changing faster than ever before, where entire types of buildings disappear seemingly in a flash? Here, we round up six types of buildings that came into existence in modern times and are fading as fast as they appeared. Mostly banal and previously ubiquitous, the nostalgia associated with the disappearance of these buildings taps into something emotional, rather than intellectual admiration.

The One Redeeming Feature That Brings Humanity to the Sameness of Suburban Sprawl

Josh Stephens — Wed, 09 Aug 2017 09:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published by Common Edge as "The Work of Architecture in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction."

AD Classics: Red House / William Morris and Philip Webb

Luke Fiederer — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 04:30:00 +0000

In the heart of a suburb just east of London stands an incongruous red brick villa. With its pointed arched window frames and towering chimneys, the house was designed to appear like a relic of the Middle Ages. In reality, its vintage dates to the 1860’s. This is Red House, the Arts and Crafts home of artist William Morris and his family. Built as a rebuttal to an increasingly industrialized age, Red House’s message has been both diminished by the passage of time and, over the course of the centuries, been cast in greater relief against its context.

Why the Suburbs Will Be America's Next Great Architectural Testing Ground

Matt Shaw — Tue, 28 Mar 2017 09:30:00 +0000

This article was originally published by The Architect's Newspaper as "The American suburbs are the next fertile ground for architectural and urban experimentation."