ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on one particular manifestation of incremental suburban change which has been a pervasive activity in Australian cities in recent decades, namely 'knockdown rebuild' (KDR), where homeowners and small developers replace individual older dwellings with new and often significantly larger houses. It presents a brief overview of key findings from our research on the KDR phenomenon in Sydney. The chapter argues that the act and process of undertaking KDR, and the planning provisions that make it a relatively straightforward process, reflect distinctive characteristics of post-war suburban Australia. As an owner-led and uncoordinated activity, the resulting outcomes of KDR affect streetscapes and neighbourhoods gradually over time. The theory that a status quo in favour of preserving the living environment prevails in traditional suburbs, and the opposite growth coalition framework applied principally to central urban areas, does not reflect the full diversity of current regulatory dynamics in suburban regions.
