David's World

September 24, 2007

On the Tragedy of Suburbia

I've just noticed a remarkable, demagogic, angry and very to-the-point talk: author James H. Kunstler speaks out about the boredom of mainstream architecture in the U.S.: When you stand at Walmart, and you can't see the Target across the road because of the curvature of the earth, where is your creative use of the space? Buildings are mere blocks, no invitation to spend time around them. Where do people meet?

From my European perspective, Kunstler is right of course. These urban and social spaces, that's what we have in Europe, in pretty much every decent city. Life in American suburbia may be very different. People drive their cars to places and people meet at church, for dinners and barbecues in their yards.
So, would the European model be appropriate for social communication in U.S. American suburbia? Or is the neighborhood culture a result of the lack of urban life, when people still spend so much of their free time at the grocery store or a mall that smells, looks and sounds like thousands of other malls around the country?