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What is the role of single-family detached housing in sustainable cities? Many are now predicting that single-family housing, especially at the periphery of major cities, is destined to become the future slum. But should we give up on single-family housing as a viable urban form? Given its popularity and sheer ubiquity, shouldn’t single-family detached housing find its place in the future course of sustainable urbanism? Under what conditions might the single-family detached house be an important part of the sustainable city? The dichotomy between the idealization and the disrepute of single-family housing demonstrates the need to clarify its role in the contemporary metropolitan city.
This special issue will move the discussion beyond debates over the non-sustainability of single-family detached housing toward a focus on innovative solutions. We view the non-sustainability of vast expanses of single-use, single-family detached housing as a settled question: such areas are highly problematic. The more pertinent question is what can be done to improve the sustainability of this urban form? What are the pros and cons of alternative solutions?
We seek scholarly research papers, both quantitative and qualitative, that bring together core literature and empirical research on innovation in single-family housing and how it can move toward sustainability. Possible paper topics include:
• Single-family housing as a setting for localized food production
• Issues of spatial scale: single-family housing in small doses
• Diversifying single-family housing with multiple functions and house types
• Selective demolition and triage
• Housing transformation and succession
• What are the potential harms of too little single-family detached housing and too much density?
• How successful are attempts to produce a mix of house types, including single-family houses in a diversified multi-functional development?
• An analysis of different types and densities of single-family housing
• Contiguity and linkage issues: single-family housing and what surrounds it
• Sustainability differences based on spatial location (single-family detached housing in inner-ring vs. outer-ring suburbs)
• The changing relationship between single family housing and socioeconomic status
• Single family housing as heritage in the inner parts of cities
• Diversifying economic activities and improving social cohesion through single family housing densification
We are seeking an international perspective, and thus welcome scholarly research papers that focus on any global context.
Submit your paper to the Journal of Urbanism at http://mc.manuscriptcentral.com:80/rjou by June 1, 2012. On page 5 of the submission process, on the “Details and comments” page, check “yes” under “Is the manuscript a candidate for a special issue?” In the box, enter “Future of Single-Family Detached Housing” as the special issue title.
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