www.inhabitat.comDwell Magazine and Inhabitat.com are pleased to announce the first ever Reburbia competition: a design competition dedicated to re-envisioning the suburbs.
With the current housing crisis, the sub-prime mortgage meltdown, and rising energy costs, the future of suburbia looks bleak. Suburban communities in central California, Arizona and Florida are desolate and decaying, with for sale and foreclosure signs dotting many lawns. According to the US Census, about 90% of all metropolitan growth occurred in suburban communities in the last ten years. Urbanites who loathe the freeways, big box stores and bland aesthetics stereotypical of suburbia may secretly root for the end of sprawl, but demographic trends indicate that exurban growth is still on the rise.
In a future where limited natural resources will force us to find better solutions for density and efficiency, what will become of the cul-de-sacs, cookie-cutter tract houses and generic strip malls that have long upheld the diffuse infrastructure of suburbia? How can we redirect these existing spaces to promote sustainability, walkability, and community? It’s a problem that demands a visionary design solution and we want you to create the vision!
Calling all future-forward architects, urban designers, renegade planners and imaginative engineers:
Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation? We want to see how you’d design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration—the wilder the better!
Enter the Inhabitat / Dwell REBURBIA competition, by sending up to 5 images and a statement about your design proposal. You can submit as many entries as you like, but each individual entry should be focused on one singular design problem/solution (i.e. a McMansion farm rehab, a bicycle transportation hub, a piezoelectric, energy-generating freeway paving system). Entries will be judged on clarity of idea, usefulness of design, and visual/aesthetic appeal of renderings.
Inhabitat.com
Inhabitat.com is a web magazine devoted to the future of design, tracking the innovations in technology, practices and materials that are pushing architecture and design towards a smarter and more sustainable future. With over 1.5 million readers a month, Inhabitat is a must-read for architects, designers, trendsetting consumers and cultural innovators who are working towards a better future. Learn more atwww.inhabitat.com
Dwell Magazine & Dwell.com
Dwell brings modern design to the masses through our award-winning magazine and website. Since 2000, we've presented real stories about modern architects and designers, and the people who inhabit the spaces they create. We believe that good design should be a part of everyday life, and that sustainability and human experience are integral parts of good design. Perched on the cutting edge, with an eye toward the rapidly changing future and an appreciation of Modernist history, Dwell invites everyone to the table for a lively conversation about being at home in the modern world.
people should be more closer to the environment. though we have done many mistakes in the past it is really required to return the energy that we have consumed or preserve them at this moment of time than letting it flow in to the environment.
