ABSTRACT
Chapter 1 acknowledges the fact that issues of politics, race, and inequity underlie many suburbs. It posits bluefield housing as a model that can target the built form of suburbia, potentially separating the design arguments of suburban infill from the political. It describes what is lost in the business-as-usual approach to knock-down-rebuild residential development in the suburbs, including the negative environmental impacts of reduced tree canopy and soft landscape surfaces. It concludes by outlining recent international design competitions that demonstrate the ambitions for new approaches to medium-density housing are not restricted to one particular place.
