Decolonizing Suburbia

Join the Decolonizing Suburbia team as they present on their project for the Center for Architecture's exhibition, Reset: Towards a New Commons.

Decolonizing Suburbia is informed by an interest in the suburban patterns of development that characterize most cities in the United States. Despite broad professional consensus that the future of housing is in high-density buildings, much of the country’s general population continues to live in neighborhoods that we consider suburban, even if they are located within the legal boundaries of a larger city. There is, in the profession, a reluctance to acknowledge the simple fact that in the U.S., the city and the suburbs are often indistinguishable. Decolonizing Suburbia explores the potential of the detached house, a popular architectural type deeply ingrained into U.S. popular consciousness, to accommodate more diverse forms of life that go beyond the prevailing “single-family” paradigm. The project engages with the architectural ramifications of decolonizing the planning policies that enabled white flight to the suburbs and deliberately isolated people of color in under-resourced, jobless inner cities.

Moderator:
Marcelo Lopez-Dinardi, Texas A&M University

Speakers:
Andrew Bruno, RA, Architect and Design Educator
Alessandro Orsini, Founding Principal, Architensions; Adjunct Assistant Professor, Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
William Prince, Founder and Principal, Parc Office, Part-Time Faculty, Parsons School of Design, The New School
Nick Roseboro, Assoc. AIA, Founding Principal, Architensions; Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation
Sharon Egretta Sutton, PhD, FAIA, Distinguished Visiting Professor of Architecture, Parsons School of Design, The New School
John Vogt, Parc Office

This program is part of the Reset:Towards a New Commons series:
July 7: Block Party: From Independent Living to Disability Communalism
July 11: Aging Against the Machine
July 28: Re:Play Reclaiming the Commons through Play
August 4: Decolonizing Suburbia

This event is offered in person and virtually; proof of complete COVID-19 vaccination (for attendees ages 5 and up) with photo ID for adults is required to attend in person. Food and beverages will be served. Face masks are required for visitors ages 2-5, and optional for those vaccinated. Read our full Health and Safety Protocol here.

If you register for an online ticket, you will receive an email with a Zoom link to access the program.