Suburban Space: The Fabric of Dwelling

From the Inside Flap

"Using meticulous methods of measurement to undergird her formal analyses of interior and exterior spaces, Renee Chow has created a brilliant analysis of American suburban habitats, from the tracts of Levitt to the compact projects of Schindler and Gill. Her elegant book, Suburban Spaces: The Fabric of Dwelling, belongs on the desk of every architect, landscape architect, and planner concerned about neighborhood densities in the twenty-first century." Dolores Hayden, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Yale University, author of Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life"An impassable gulf would seem to separate the complex urban fabric of nineteenth-century Charleston or San Francisco from the sprawl of suburban Levittown and its successors. But Renee Y. Chow has perceived that the complex relationships of density and diversity, public and private in older cities could provide vital lessons for breaking out of the boxes and cul-de-sacs of conventional suburban design. Yet Chow is no antiquarian: her brilliantly original representations of suburbia lead directly to a radical transformation in suburban design." Robert Fishman, author of Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia"Renee Chow advocates a new way of seeing suburban environments. She proposes a view where inside and outside space are given equal attention and interact as part of a continuous fabric." John Habraken, author of The Structure of the Ordinary

From the Back Cover

"Using meticulous methods of measurement to undergird her formal analyses of interior and exterior spaces, Renee Chow has created a brilliant analysis of American suburban habitats, from the tracts of Levitt to the compact projects of Schindler and Gill. Her elegant book, Suburban Spaces: The Fabric of Dwelling, belongs on the desk of every architect, landscape architect, and planner concerned about neighborhood densities in the twenty-first century."―Dolores Hayden, Professor of Architecture and Urbanism, Yale University, author of Redesigning the American Dream: The Future of Housing, Work, and Family Life"An impassable gulf would seem to separate the complex urban fabric of nineteenth-century Charleston or San Francisco from the sprawl of suburban Levittown and its successors. But Renee Y. Chow has perceived that the complex relationships of density and diversity, public and private in older cities could provide vital lessons for breaking out of the boxes and cul-de-sacs of conventional suburban design. Yet Chow is no antiquarian: her brilliantly original representations of suburbia lead directly to a radical transformation in suburban design."―Robert Fishman, author of Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia"Renee Chow advocates a new way of seeing suburban environments. She proposes a view where inside and outside space are given equal attention and interact as part of a continuous fabric."―John Habraken, author of The Structure of the Ordinary