Partner: Leah Gao; Professor Dana McKinney
The notion of the American Dream and suburban life being the ultimate ideal for achieving success and happiness is increasingly being questioned as outdated and no longer relevant in modern society. Most suburbs lack socioeconomic, ethnic, and program diversity and heavily rely on the car to access necessities. Looking to Westwood, Massachusetts, as a specific case study, we proposed to revive the ideals of suburban life into the 21st-century lifestyle.
We decided to focus our design on young children and aging adults who do not necessarily have their own agency regarding mobility. In pushing for more accessible means of mobility across the site and creating a hub for diverse programming and engagement for the community, we revive the small-town charm of what the suburbs used to strive for.
