House, Backyard, Car

Margaret Crawford

Rethinking Suburbia

15 May 2024

Debate

Margaret Crawford, one of the foremost international specialists on urban planning in the United States, offers keys to understanding the transformations of the American suburbs in recent years and to rethinking some of the stereotypes that have historically defined suburban areas.

Despite frequent criticism of the American suburban model, the flow of citizens moving to the suburbs continues unabated: today, more than half of Americans live outside urban centres. Recent economic, social and spatial changes have demanded a reconsideration of some of the most common assumptions about the suburbs. In fact, their abundance and diversity are undercutting most generalizations: suburbs can be big or small, rich or poor, dense or disperse, which is why they have been so misunderstood. Some contemporary observers have even claimed that cities and suburbs have swapped places: qualities usually associated with city centres are now characteristic of the suburbs. Looking at the suburbs as an independent settlement model, not subordinate to the city centre, we begin to see how new and very diverse urban planning forms are emerging today.

Presenters: Francesc Muñoz

Participants: Margaret Crawford

This activity is part of Suburbia, House, Backyard, Car

Margaret Crawford: “Suburbanization is not the problem. It is the solution”

Margaret Crawford is an urban planner and one of the foremost experts on urban transformations in suburban areas in the United States. She champions the complexity and socio-cultural diversity of American residential neighbourhoods, suggesting that much of the criticism they face arises from ...

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