Resilience in the face of banal

Suburbs: the new American nightmare attempts to put forward the experience of many young families who began to settle in the sudden sprawl caused by affordable housing schemes offered by the government. Backed by numerous literature, music and theater, the general observation and expectation is that a homogeneous society leads to lack of diversity among people and community resulting in an extremely banal culture. The lack of character in these house supplemented by absence of nearby facilities like shops, grocery stores, offices, health and recreational facilities which are essential to forming a wholesome neighborhood, adds to these conclusions.

Margaret Crawford’s Little Boxes, however, presents a dynamically different picture which looks at the possible side-effects of affordable housing when faced with a set of varying economic, social and global conditions. Looking at the social and economic history of a place and what led to its current state provides incredible insight about how economic and technological factors aided by immigration can lead to a dense and vital social network even with the absence of any remarkable architectural character in the traditional sense. In fact, to the contrary, it seems that the repetitive, light frame structures provided by the housing boom helped provide exactly the kind of flexibility and affordability that middle income groups and low-income groups of immigrants required to recreate parts of their native land in a new environment alien to them.

However, I would go beyond crediting only the flexible nature of space but also attribute the background of the people and where they come from towards creating a life out of the banalities that they were presented with. I believe people can be incredibly resilient when faced with challenges in order to achieve what they are comfortable in and with. However, the lifestyle that you have grown up in also decides how you deal with situations faced later in life.

In a similar vein, in today’s environment, the same sort of creativity is required to work with and make the most of the surplus built environment resources which are going unused. Reinvigorating existing suburban structures which were left abandoned after the recession, through an analysis and revaluation of existing systems of transport, well designed urban nodes, inclusion of work-related facilities, recreational facilities, health facilities set up in a close knit settlement may actually help balance out the ongoing battle between satellite cities which are dependent on bigger cities as opposed to a more sustainable living system, less dependent on gasoline chugging vehicles.