While scrolling through YouTube, I came across this Vox video discussing why all Suburbs look the same. The racial and socioeconomic segregation reasons for something so ubiquitous today are a bit unnerving, but sadly not really shocking. The way suburbs were created with curves and cul de sac’s forces the necessity of cars for transportation, instead of a more consumer friendly option such as public transportation.
Having grown up in a more suburban area than Philly, the video really made me think about how Suburban life has basically been designed to support a very middle class and white demographic from the very start, and I am starting to think about how that applies to my own home town. Even though the fact that a design can have such a social impact on our culture is very interesting and exciting, to see examples like this were design is used in an exclusionary manner is a sad misuse of such a unique power.
ADDC 401 Fall 2019 