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Creating more complexity and self-awareness
Even in the worst sprawling suburbs the places are more complex and are involved in more relations and flows than shows in the architecture. The place form of the suburb is not the same as the visible architectural form. Suburbs are hypertextual; items get their meaning from connections beyond the locality.Whether in retrofitting existing suburbs or in new construction that works for both spatial and communicative density, we can create more complexity and self-awareness. A more complex inhabitation does not eliminate the sense of hominess and safety that many seek in the suburbs. It locates those senses of center and periphery, home and community, within the larger contexts and the flows of meaning and system that sway our lives.