A Computational Response to Arrested Development

Current improvements in transportation, communication technology, and a steady rise in globalization has lead to the effect of suburbanization. While the exact effects and implications of suburbanization remain a matter of great controversy, it is undeniable that substantial qualitative changes are taking place in the world economy, with major spatial and social implications. These conditions pose significant challenges to the normative design practices in concern to planning and housing, requiring an approach that operates beyond the quick fix or the local solution. In order to operate critically and design effectively to these conditions, an examination of socio-spatial urban processes and transformations in the world economy is needed; along with an investigation into the evolution of ideas and approaches to the informal and irregular processes of suburbia making. In this context, the research will generate alternative templates of suburbanization based on strategies that stem from embryonic processes seeking the integration of cultural tradition, regional ecological systems and economic globalization. The ultimate goal of project is to create an alternative model for suburbanization while critically addressing the phenomena of mass-produced urban sprawl. With alternative templates for localized, sustainable strategies capable of addressing a wider range of scales and interests. These alternative templates will address issues of housing, poverty, and the concepts of urban intensification and density. Dealing with these divers and complex issues in the patterns of suburban growth in an architectural context, architecture can play a central role in the creation of strategies and generating novel suburban clusters. The end result will focus on understanding the most important changes in the contemporary suburban condition and show how architectural intelligence will help the development community to respond to these trends