Alternatives to Sprawl: Case Studies in Building Better 'Burbs

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Since the 1950s, the United States has gone all-in on sprawl, building tens of millions of single-family homes in sterile subdivisions while strangling its cities with highways and urban renewal projects. But it doesn’t have to be this way. In this video, we visit a range of groundbreaking suburbs in Denmark, Germany, Austria, and Sweden, from the commuter village at Skarpnäcksfältet to the eco-city at Seestadt, and examine how suburbs large and small can be designed and built as livable, green, and family-friendly communities. None of our case studies are hypothetical: they all have anywhere from several hundred to tens of thousands of residents. We conclude by reviewing the policies and practices that make better suburbs possible. Any country can build better ‘burbs, we just need to follow the example of those that already do.

Introduction: (0:00)
Galgebakken: (2:31)
Rieselfeld & Vauban: (4:36)
SolarCity & Seestadt: (9:14)
Skarpnäcksfältet & Nærheden: (15:43)
How do we get there: (20:50)

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Apologies for the inconsistent audio, I moved during the production of the video and wasn’t able to set up an adequate recording environment for parts of it.

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Research cited in this video:

https://hstalks.com/article/783/freiburg-principles-of-sustainable-urbanism/
https://www.jstor.org/stable/24579281
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0885412212451029?journalCode=jplb
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02665430801906349?journalCode=rppe20
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/333932982_Large_Scale_Urban_Developments_in_Austria_-_Challenges_and_Opportunities_Based_on_Two_Case_Study_Examples
https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/In-search-of-a-healthy-balance-on-the-example-of-of-Wiedniu/7aba3b22cbaaf6803f06cf7c7d50b076f8d63292

See also the excellent book by urban researcher Jan Gehl: “Life Between Buildings”.

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