Margaret Crawford

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.