Suburb

From PlanningWiki

Contents 1 Why do suburbs happen? 2 Pro 3 Contra 4 What can be done against suburbs? 5 What can be done for suburbs?

Why do suburbs happen?

Cheap energy combined with the drive to live far away from others on a piece of land unassailable by others have produced a climate of satisfaction along the principle of least action. What is in fact true is that a suburb is far removed from the principle of least action because instead of putting in a new building in a piece of established infrastructure, it is necessary to invest a huge amount of energy to be able to just build the first house - after which it all gets easier. Where a suburb is like a car's development cycle - it required huge initial investment, is profitable for a while and then fades out, an urban area is like computer's life cycle - bits of it are upgraded one piece at a time.

Pro

• Suburbs conform to the standards set by mass industrialisation over the last 100 years. Suburban environments tend to provide a great degree of privacy, quiet, space, and greenery; all things which dense central city cores have largely failed to provide adequate levels of in the eyes of many people.

Contra

• Suburbs require cheap and abundant energy supplies.

• They isolate residents from one another because houses tend to be spaced so far apart that automobile travel is the only convenient way to reach destinations.

What can be done against suburbs?

What can be done for suburbs?