Band-aids & bomb shelters : an analytic narrative envisioning the American suburban fabric as a construct for poachable territories that engage the routine of the everyday

Abstract

The consumerism of Western culture has allowed the prevailing suburban development pattern of the latter half of the twentieth century to evolve from a pedestrian-friendly canvas for the American Dream into an iconographic realization of commuting motorists decentralized from social interaction. Symbolizing solitude and privatization. this sprawling environment has become an epidemic deteriorating the social network in the United States: a condition that requires a remedy.With the popularization of traditional neighborhood development. a large majority of newly constructed communities find themselves located away from the realities of the modern bait environment. Like a bomb shelter. occupants have been allowed the opportunity to escape to a time before sprawl. consequently ignoring the problem. In order to address this condition. these issues can no longer go unaddressed they must be healed. This study depicts suburbia as an evolving network requiring a reinsertion of a mixed-functionality into its failed developments in order to reengage the occupant and revive suburbia's communal identity: in turn allowing the resolution to evolve from a bomb shelter to a Band-Aid.With research methods including qualitative assessments of numerous case studies. writings and diagrammatic theories regarding the social realm. interviews. and the consideration of numerous texts regarding interdisciplinary concerns as well as popular culture and sociological understandings. the study defines suburbia as a poachable territory — a construct that harvests opportunities for the occupant to reengage their context. By reversing the evolution from pedestrian to motorist. these interventions allow communities to embezzle the environment in an effort to establish a collective identity and reintroduce a social ream. Furthermore. these theories are then inserted in a generalizable residential development in Carmel. Indiana named Village Park Estates. By analyzing the potential found in these developments this epidemic can begin to be diagnosed allowing the author to establish a solution grounded in the routine of the everyday.