Suburban Alternatives: Survey of Low-Rise High-Density Housing Projects in the United States maps 50 built American projects that occupy the contested ground between the detached house and the apartment block, making a concrete case for compact housing as a viable suburban future.
About This Book
Low-rise high-density housing sits at an awkward intersection: neither the single-family home nor the conventional apartment building, these grouped housing typologies preserve some intimacy of individual dwelling while enabling shared infrastructure, reduced land consumption, and genuine ecological benefit. This atlas surveys 50 projects across the United States, presenting field observations alongside essays by French and American researchers specialising in suburban conditions. The result is a comparative study of how compactness and agglomeration can be reconciled with livability — essential reading for architects, urban designers, and housing policy thinkers grappling with the question of what comes after sprawl.
Key Features
- 288 pages of project documentation, field observations, and analytical essays on low-rise high-density housing typologies
- Authors: Florian Camani and Mathilde Luguet; essays coordinated by Marc-Antoine Durand
- Atlas of 50 housing projects drawn from across the United States
- Published by Building Books, ISBN: 9782492680168
What You'll Discover
- How the "low-rise high-density" model preserves characteristics of the individual home while enabling collective services and reducing land consumption
- The range of housing typologies and forms of agglomeration that emerge from compact suburban groupings
- Perspectives from both French and American researchers on the social, ecological, and spatial dimensions of suburban transformation
- A cross-sectional view of how these hybrid projects are being built across diverse American suburban contexts
About the Author
Florian Camani and Mathilde Luguet conducted the field observations and project surveys that form the core of this atlas. The research is coordinated by Marc-Antoine Durand, who brings together essays from researchers specialised in suburban areas across France and the United States.
Specifications
- Format: Softcover
- Pages: 288
- Dimensions: 19 x 30 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9782492680168
- Publisher: Building Books
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Architects and urban designers working on housing, academics and students of urbanism, housing policy researchers, and practitioners exploring sustainable alternatives to conventional suburban development.