When I learned about the book ‘Rewriting Exurbia: New People in Aging Sprawl,’ I knew I had to read it.
I am interested in the urban sphere, extending to sub-, peri- and exurban areas. The health and interdependence of these areas are a key component to many dimensions of regional resilience.
However, talking about suburbs and exurbs is hardly as ‘sexy’ or compelling for many as core urbanism is. Decades of sprawl-related issues and (let’s face it), also a different way of living often out there in the ‘burbs, render sub and exurbia as sometimes neglected topics in the discourse on urbanism.
And as I type this, I am living in Europe, where a significant portion of the population lives in periurban areas. These areas are not going anywhere and people will continue to live in them.
So I was pretty excited when I saw this book by Lawrence Davis which investigates the architectural and urban design potential of immigrant spatial practices for transforming Euro-American exurbs and other low-density built environments in North America’.
As Davis writes in the introduction, ‘The increased urbanization of the exurb constitutes a “rewriting” of the existing texture, not by disposing of it but by building in and through it to affect a wider process of metropolitan growth.‘
Looking forward to ‘Rewriting Exurbia’ as a core part of my summer reading stack and to later interviewing author Lawrence Davis.
“Leading the way for similar happenings worldwide, North America’s suburbs are changing. They have become ethnically and racially diverse. As a result, these now-multicultural outskirts reflect the character of our socially varied world. This is threatening to some. In the long term, however, this social transformation and the potential spatial change accompanying it can provide essential elements to address suburbia’s infamous isolation and monoculture. In light of this, this publication attempts to understand the significance of the future suburb, not only as a place for a diverse neighborhood culture but also, at a larger scale, as a new form of decentralized city.” -ListLab Publisher,
Link to book here: https://www.listlab.eu/en/catalogo/libri-collane-tematiche-main-series/serie-babel-urbanization/rewriting-exurbia-new-people-in-aging-sprawl/
