Exploring the future of ecology and missing middle housing in a dispersed metropolis

Abstract

As complex beings we are striving for improvement and change. Idealists planned for Garden or Radiant cities to alleviate the filth and disease of crowded industrial cities. Development spurred by the automobile created new pollutants and social upheaval as people left the cities for the suburbs. Today, suburban communities that seemed like the answer to urban woes are now disintegrating due to lack of connectivity and services. The future of suburban sprawl is grim as the world necessarily shifts from carbon heavy, car dependent, dispersed development towards increased density that enables equity, afford ability and convenience. The separation of work, housing, and recreation has taken a toll on the social and ecological environments which make up our lives. More than ever, people (myself included) are commuting from their suburban lots by car to school, work, play, and to engage socially. Highways, traffic, and pollution are filling up the once clean air of the suburbs that were an escape from the industrial-era pollution of cities.