week7.new urbanism & beyond.

New Urbanism//Seaside [Andres Duany / Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk]

Please visit the MoMA website archiving the exhibit, "Foreclosed: Re-Housing the American Dream."

Studio Gang Architects/ "The Garden & the Machine." [Cicero, IL]

for more information you can visit this project directly at this  MoMA website  

Michael Meredith & Hilary Sample//MOS. "Thoughts on a Walking City" [The Oranges, NJ]

For video commentary & website/report click here.

Michael Bell & Eunjeong Seong//Visible Weather. "Simultaneous City." [Temple Terrace, FL]

For video commentary & MoMA website/report click here.

Amale Andraos & Dan Wood//WORKac. "Nature-City." [Keizer, OR]

For video commentary & MoMA website/report click here.

Andrew Zago//Zago Architecture. "Property with Properties." [Rialto, CA]

For video commentary & MoMA website/report click here.

*For some healthy criticism on this exhibition, click here.

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The suburban life style has been an inspiration for media since in the invention of television. Shows such as Leave it to Beaver and Desperate Housewives attempt to depict the “typical” household amongst these communities. In exchange for broadcasted entertainment the social understanding of the role of women in the household has been skewed and has set back the advancement of women’s rights.

For centuries women have been fighting to become equal members of society. As early as the 1848 when a group of 32 men and 68 women met in Seneca Falls, New York to discussion the first motions for equal voting right for women. (Imbornoni) Since then, women’s rights have taken extreme leaps forward in accomplishing voting, labor, and wage rights.

Suburban sprawl can be pulled into question when analyzing the current social outlook on women’s roles. Currently, the media portrays women under a similar light across the board of televised entertainment. Shows such as Reba, Boy Meets World, and The George Lopez Show are examples of how different stations attempt to depict different styles of women but ultimately present one solution on being a modern day women.

Within all of these shows a pattern has been set up for what a women’s role should be. In the show Reba, Reba is a single mother raising her children and has a career as a real estate agent. George Lopez Show, Angie is a married minority woman who owns here own wedding planning company. In Boy Meets World the mother is a stay at home mom who portrays a more stereotypical outlook on women in the home. All of these characters are extremely diverse and in theory would represent a wide variety of real women in the community.

Unfortunately, the patterns within these shows blanket the diversity of the characters and places all of them back into the stereotypes set up by past generations. In all three shows the mother of home is never depicted in the career field they have been explained to have. If the show leaves the setting of the home it is the man’s work place that is expressed. Also, within these shows the beauty of the women and their attire remain unchanged. Each show depicts a thin beautiful woman that supports and obeys their husband’s final decision.

It is because of these stereotypes that women feel that this is how a woman should be. Organizations have been created where women have named themselves as “Suburban Wives in Training” where they share the secrets of how to make the perfect casserole or how to get grass stains out of denim.

Women did not burn their bras in the 1960’s to be told by producers that they belong within the home. Suburbanism has not only effected a person individuality and sense of community but rather the sprawl of suburbia has presented a weapon for the media to stereotype women and set back the advancements by making women believe that this how they should be.

Imbornoni, Ann-Marie. "Women's Rights Movements in the U.S.." Information Please. N.p., 2007. Web. 22 Feb 2012.

"suburban housewives in training." tumblr. N.p., dec 2011. Web. 23 Feb. 2012. .

Reba. Fox: Television.

George Lopez Show. ABC Family: Television.

Boy Meets World. ABC Family: Television.

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How does the living in suburban areas cause obesity in children and how can we prevent obesity in children who live in suburbs?

Although parents choose to move to suburbs for bringing up their children, living in suburban has a relation with obesity in children.  Children are growing up in suburbs as lack of walking and biking. Parents are always picking their children up form school and drop them to school by their own cars every day. Today, children are who don’t have physical activities because of addiction of technology. This means that they need to walk and bike for getting rid of laziness. A study in the December issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine reports that, like their parents, kids who live in the suburbs and usually ride in cars, weigh more and are more prone to obesity than kids who live in densely populated urban areas where they can easily walk to destinations.  Also, today, many schools are far away from residential sites in suburban areas and sidewalks are not safety for kids. Therefore, they cannot go to school without cars.  

We need to think why children don’t choose to walk? There are many reasons of obesity in children who live in suburbs like dependent of cars and design of suburban areas.  As we know children are our future and we need to figure out this problem as encouraging the kids to walk. Thus, we should organize campaigns and create suburbs for making walking more attractive to students.

That is why we are saying LET’s WALK and BIKE TO SCHOOL!

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Quoted by TIME, “Fast food chains are too often built in the early stages of low property valued areas where large traffic is predicted, and the population is expected to boom.”   Being a set precedent for future development, we see a great disconnect between community planning and more specifically, the placement of housing.  There is argument that with the creation of a franchise, such as fast food, a reinforcement of destructive pattern is continuously engaged, resulting in new migration away from these areas, once again creating more sprawl. 

This mind set, having focus on the growth of fast food restaurants, only creates a problematic scenario for surrounding neighborhoods and its residents.  According to SCIENCEDAILY, the State of the Evidence Review on Urban Health and Healthy Weights recently released a plethora of population health studies that included studies of different aspects of our urban environments that can either “inhibit or promote our ability to maintain a healthy weight.”  Within the built environment, as in, neighborhoods and cities that are planned and developed, interaction with fast food chains and surrounding residential areas is taken into account throughout the evaluation process. What they found was low-income neighborhoods have a higher probability in the consumption of higher caloric intake, such as what is provided from the high convenience of fast food restaurants.  There seemed to have been lower access to grocery stores.  SCIENCEDAILY also continues to say that, amongst many low-income neighborhoods, there lie issues of having a lower socio-economic status.  Therefore, there is higher probability in the idea that increase in obesity is derived from how “lower personal income affects the affordability of food.”

References:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/09/050909220354.htm

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1904150,00.html

image initially from: http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2011/07/11/article-0-013D127400001005-783_634x484.jpg

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How Does Suburban Sprawl Affect the Lives of Commuters?

The image of suburban living has become synonymous with the idea of a safe, relaxing and family oriented area to live and grow as a family. Once the idea of suburban living is scrutinized, the realization sets in that people of suburbia are stranded on an island full of homes without the ability to easily commute anywhere without a vehicle. Instead of spending time with friends and family at home, sporting events, out to dinner or various other leisurely activities within the home or community, American’s now spend an abundance of time in their car commuting to and from work, the store, and chauffeuring those unable to drive to their destination. “Suburban sprawl has created a nation that has been supersized beyond walking distance” (Time, 1).

Suburban sprawl has created a society that is completely dependent on vehicles. Businessmen and businesswomen are spending more and more time on their daily commute to and from work, children are stuck sitting in front of the television since they don’t have independent access to their friends, the park, etc. and shoppers are unable to quickly run to the store without first jumping in their car to fight traffic and traffic lights the entire way there and back. If an average commute time to work is an hour, that commuter will spend a minimum of 500 hours per year just driving to and from work. That adds up to twelve work weeks’ worth of driving (Suburban Nation)! While driving to and from work is a constant, time consuming battle, “eighty percent of all suburban automobile trips have nothing to do with work at all, but are short drives to places that used to be accessible on foot, such as shops, schools, parks, and friends’ houses” (Suburban Nation, 126). Not only does suburban sprawl and this complete dependence on cars effect our time, it also effects our pocketbook. “The typical American family spends four times as much on transportation as its European counterpart even though gasoline costs four times as much in Europe” (Suburban Nation, 126). The integration and use of mixed-use environments could drastically improve the lives and pocketbooks of commuters in suburbia.

By altering zoning regulations, local ordinances and building codes that currently discourage mixed-use environments and denser developments (Time), the incorporation of a small shopping center, business district and park near neighborhoods would drastically reduce the amount of time spent in traffic and the dependence on vehicles. Commuters would be able to work closer to home and spend less time in traffic, shoppers would be able to walk to the store to quickly pick up an item or two and those who are unable to drive would have the independence to access places on foot. All in all, urban amenities in suburbia would benefit everyone who lived there.

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How has the design of suburbia become the onset of obesity? What implementations in design can change this lifestyle?

Obesity is an epidemic here in the United States that is on the increase as “suburban sprawl has created a nation that has been supersized beyond walking distance” (Lacayo 1). Over the past thirty years the mom-and-pop stores and amenities within a neighborhood have become virtually extinct. Families have become so used to having to drive to have their basic needs met that they are no longer willing to walk more than quarter of a mile from their home for anything, even exercise. Cookie cutter neighborhoods offer no trails, no common ground or playgrounds for children, a severe lack in promoting a healthy living style for families in these areas.

Research has shown that now a connection can be made between sprawling suburbs and spreading waistlines (Lacayo 2). Currently there are three great examples of how designers are trying to combat this “spread.”

First, New York has a great model for the rest of the country to look into. Back in 2010, the Active Design Guidelines were produced. Active Design is a concept in design that “addresses obesity and encourages physical activity through the design of the environment” (Robbins 2) on a daily basis. Ways this design promotes this lifestyle change are: walking instead of driving, taking stairs instead of elevators, and creating parks. All of these offer a form of exercise and can lower health risks for men and women. New York City has begun to promote these guidelines. One example is the Via Verde, a mixed-income housing complex in the South Bronx. The architects design houses, rooftop gardens; recreational spaces for children, onsite fitness, and day lit interior stairs that have jazz music playing.

Another example are the healthy eating campaigns and physical activity programs that Los Angeles County is currently implementing. They developed a design manual that curates the best practices that designers and officials can use to make “streets more active, usable, and healthy for residents” (Berg 1). This manual has been created in such a way that it has been made available to any city or government body with the hope that they will “take it, adopt it, and plagiarize it, do whatever” (Berg 1).

Finally, Time Magazine’s article stated that a change in the zoning regulations would allot for the mixed-use areas to return (residential and commercial in the same neighborhood). Reworking roadways in areas to allow for students to walk to their schools versus being driven or driving themselves is just another possible solution to change the unfortunate lifestyle that has taken over America.

There is a reoccurring theme between all of the articles read and that is “until we change how America is built, how Americans are built will be a continuing problem” (Lacayo 4).


Here is a graphic to represent the other article that we read for class:

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How do our ‘safe’ neighborhoods drive us to depression?

People often portray suburbs as a premier place to live. It’s expected to be safer, cleaner, have better education, and supply green open fields for children to play. Some of these characteristics may be true; however, a heavy mental weight comes with the package. Harmful traits of living in suburbia include over burdened parents [mandatory drive time from work and their kids activities], bored teenagers, teenage drivers, stranded elderly, and under financed municipalities. These characteristics add stress to our everyday lives and may even contribute to depression among residents.

Teenage suicide rates have been increasing since the 1950’s and sociologists point to isolation and boredom. This is in response to an environment that does not provide non-drivers to move throughout the community. Teenagers in suburban neighborhoods lack ordinary challenges of maturing that helps them gain a sense of self (120, Suburban Nation). It’s no surprise that residents of single family houses become lonesome because there is often little sense of community and few people walking the streets. We have created an environment that requires driving before every activity; even exercise (118, Suburban Nation). Unfortunately these issues are not exclusive to one age group or demographic. Elderly citizens also feel the pressures of being part of the car dependent population.

Residents don’t often grow out of these problems, they grow into it. It has become common for retirees to find a suburban home to relax in. This pleasure immediately changes the minute they lose their drivers license and are forced to move again. This secondary move provides the ‘non-viable’ elderly to be quarantined with members of society with a similar fate (123, Suburban Nation).

The negative characteristics of suburban housing are hidden very well by the typical ‘television screen house’ as James Kunstler described it. By purchasing a single family home you are portraying yourself as normal and just as successful as your cul-de-sac neighbors. These houses, although perceived to be great homes, can provide additional burdens on its residents and can actually contribute to serious mental and physical disorders.

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How does boredom affect children who are trapped living in the suburban environment?

How doesn’t long-term boredom affect a child’s outcome? There has been much documentation on the causes of boredom that leads children to other unfavorable outcomes in their continuing lives. As discussed, suburban developments leave residents with little to no room for outdoor leisure, walking areas, or social commons to gather in (pg 1&2, time: obesity crisis). Playing fields, grass areas and play grounds are out of reach unless a parent is available to chauffer their children to the areas (pg 116, suburban nation). As children, they have no option to leave their cookie-cutter home unless there is someone to take them elsewhere. Boredom doesn’t stop at childhood, sadly, the outcomes are worse in teenage years. Suicide rates and car accidents in teens have been recently correlated with urban sprawl (pg 119-20, suburban nation). Sociologists associate teen isolation and boredom as a contributing factor in teen suicide.

On top of these factors, obesity of course is taking America by storm. Unfortunately at all ages, Americans are suffering from obesity. According to a recent study, from year 2000 to 2010, "Nearly 34 percent of adults are obese, more than double the percentage 30 years ago. The share of obese children tripled during that time to 17 percent (NYTimes, 2010) To add boremdom into this equation, when children and teens have nothing else to do and have nowhere else to go, they overeat- boredom has a direct relationship with obesity (Hartman, Obesity News).

Again, suburban neighborhoods are correlated with boredom because children are rarely able to get outside, go for a walk, meet at social commons, or go to the playing fields to pass the time. In turn, they watch endless amounts of television, play endless amounts of video games, eat endless amounts of unhealthy food and the list goes on. Even though location may not seem to have much of an impact on a childhood…it could have everything to do with their outcome. These factors should be taken into the utmost consideration when it comes time to raising a family.

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The Negative Effect of Suburban Design on Teenage Life

Teenagers are drastically left out of the picture when suburban communities are
planned. Today’s teens have no place to make their own and little space to enjoy freedom. Essentially, teenagers living in suburbs are living an adult life- on a schedule, going places only by means of a vehicle, few places to meet, and limited access to pursue socialization on their own
time. ''They're basically an unseen population until they pierce their noses,'' said William
Morrish, a professor of architecture and the director of the Design Center for American Urban Landscape at the University of Minnesota. ''They have access to computers and weaponry. The sense of alienation that might come from isolation or neglect will have a much larger impact than it might have before. And there are no questions coming from the design community about what we can be doing about this. We don't invite them in." 1

So what how we design suburban communities that aid in optimal youth opportunity and growth? Access is a recurring theme in many studies and articles on this topic. Resources for opportunity need to be made available to teenagers, and not only by the escort of a guardian. This can come in the form of a nearby public library, a neighborhood ball field or park, and grocery or retail establishments within walking or biking distances. Additional communal yard or green space with benches, perhaps shuffle board, and basketball courts that is available by stepping out of one’s front door would provide great opportunities for youth to meet together outside of the home.

1 William L. Hamilton, “How Suburban Design is Failing Teen-agers”, New York Times, May 1999. Accessed
February 21, 2012 http://www.nytimes.com/1999/05/06/garden/how-suburban-design-is-failing-teen-agers.html

some thoughts on corbu & wright

instead of replying, i thought this might be a more effective way to respond and even generate greater conversation from some of the current discussion going on. i also wanted to be sure that you all don't take corbu's dom-ino frame as only that..

the thing i want you all to be aware of is to think about le corbusier's intention with the dom-ino house beyond the diagram of 3 plates and 6 columns. this notion is the root of the idea...but then the enclosures, the apertures [windows] the plan are all free to change and respond to user and site.

[hybrid//pre-fab + custom] for this, the dom-ino is celebrating the notion of pre-fab with minimal structural base, but allows for an endless range of customization within and around. i can't imagine that there would not be great benefit from contractors and developers to adopt 2-3 structural layout an diagrams of their own, and allow for the SITE and its CONTEXT, along with an invested conversation with the future home owners or research on various target occupant demographics to determine a hybrid [pre-fab + custom]. this type of attitude could only create a greater investment and connection with the home itself, therefore perpetuating a life long relationship with where one lives. rather than a relationship with only the things we put in it [as suggested by krystal in this discussion], because the house itself is devoid of any character, sense of place, or emotion. houses today are beige, basic, and the same no matter where you go, how can you LOVE the house? how can the house inspire your everyday experience of living?

on the other wright seemed to look into primarily each house as a customized expression of the owner and site. this seems less realistic in our modern world and less efficient. however, it is a testament to the act of engaging user profiles and site conditions in the process of design with the success, reflections, and unique fondness the occupants of his usonian homes have in his usonian community.



[man and/vs. nature] the houses do embrace some of the interior/exterior relationships and begin to play on scale and space similar to wright. only these houses tend to look "machine like" because of corb's infatuation with the simplicity, functionality, and efficiency of the "machines" of the 21st century. honesty of materials...he also in some ways "de-materializes" his homes to put greater emphasis on the VOLUME, SPACE, and LIGHT, creating a greater contrast between nature and man. corbusier as you can see aims to separate the two...but still have a harmonious relationship with one another. [the columns suspending the homes above the ground,e tc.] wright seems to do the opposite and aims to grow from the ground like a tree. become and extension of nature and the "organic" as he often references it. corbusier further's he's notion of the machine by creating continuous, smooth white surfaces highlighted by accent walls of color to create greater emphasis of depth and movement. pristine and white. where wright allows for the skin of the house to be further expression of the natural textures, and patterns. he uses concrete as well but dyes it. the house itself obtains a textural and material quality that we often relate to and love about the object we put inside our homes.

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Wright & Corbuiser. Two very influential architects of modernism with very strong and convicted views towards the ideal intentions of the affordable single family home. 

Le Corbusier // perceived emphasis on construction industry and advancement, mass-production, the "machine" and desire to replace natural materials with artificial materials of the future, along with the tendency to consider the house only as a tool.

Wright// designed houses to focus on something beyond the industry of construction and advancements of materials, but aims to focus on the "organic", the "interior-space concept", specific relationships with place. a movement beyond just the exterior. While Le Corbusier’s plans for emerging architectural shifts involved maxing out standardization and industrialization, Wright’s ideas became the brain-child of discovering the human factor- the purpose of architecture itself.

Then there is the influence and intentions of the Eames. There aim was to literally create something wonderful, modern, rich in space, with relationships to its place with truly OFF-THE-SHELF products. They did not customize a new structural scheme, but utilized common standardized kit of parts. They allowed for variance within one system, but limited the variance of customization that could occur. The Eames seemed to understand the embedded social norm of the American as a consumer of products and it can be perceived that they aimed to create a beautiful shelf to contain the things for living. [the Eames addition was added by Lindsey Bahe]

who was right? which is a better approach and option to the creation of and the living in a single family home? are they both as extremely in opposition as it seems at first glance? whose approach are we closer to in today's home developments? is there perhaps the perfect blend/balance/formula of all the ideals listed above that should be exercised when designing today's 21st century house?

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Harmony: Neutra and Wright

Both Richard Neutra and Frank Lloyd Wright designed homes with the intent to create harmonious living experiences; however, harmony was defined and expressed in drastically different ways. Neutra believed that a strong connection to the nearby environment was important to house design and was important to the user. Wright, on the other hand, primarily focused on the built environment to improve harmony and simplicity. This poses the question; is there a right way to create harmony or should just the existence of harmony be reason to celebrate? Both designers applied natural materials and seemed to think about the relationship of the house with its place [sun, views, etc.], should this still be an important aspect to homes today? Both designers strategically utilized and programmed outside space as an extension of the interior, why is this a valuable practice to the quality of living?

frank lloyd wright

nuetra.

less stuff, more happiness.

i think that this TEDtalk is a great way to conclude Laura's conversation on size. Despite the social inter-relationships of one family member to another, and from one neighbor to another, having less stuff, and therefore reduce the need having MORE SPACE, makes one feel happier. the happier one is, the greater the desire to socialize and the more pleasant social interactions will be.

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Images Provided by: Modern Suburban Home.Photo.n.d.web.http://activerain.com/blogsview/1326544.

Levittown Family Home.Photo.Invincible Armor.n.d.web.http://invinciblearmor.blogspot.com/2010/08/.

Human Beings require interaction with one another in order to function. 

According to the American Physiological Society, "Neuroscientists do agree: humans and their brains and minds are shaped, and normally function, in continuous interaction with other people. Not only the physical presence, but also the metnal image of another person can affect teh state of one's brain, behavior, and attitude." [Hari]


This means that humans need other humans to not only be in their surroundings but to socially interact with in order to create mental relationships.


How has the size of homes influenced this required form of social interaction? What type of positive social structures between families and community were established in the theories and designs of architectural leaders attempting to to create solutions to the affordable, middle class home of the 40's, 50's, and 60's? How are they different from today? What type of relationships were established due the design intentions and also to the economy of size?

usonia//other sources

 Green Before it had a Name.

Suzanne DeChillo/The New York Times

Usonia Community Remembers its Past.

mr. & mrs. wright & usonia open house. photographed by Pedro Guerrero. 

eames. [other sources for your pleasure]

off the shelf. everyday. consumerism. catalogue of parts for variance.



ice cube's point of view. [mash-ups before mash-ups existed]




                                       new york times article on charles & ray. click here.

http://articles.latimes.com/2007/jun/28/home/hm-eames28

another film about the eames [not specifically the case study house]