Degendering Suburbia: Speculations on a New Dream

Abstract

Made specifically for the white American nuclear family, the 1950s suburban tract house embeds gendered notions of space and excludes anyone not representative of the mold. The midcentury American dream was spatialized in visual media and advertising, reinforcing gender norms and the nuclear family. But the suburbs are changing, jobs are dispersing, and the cost of living in urban centers is increasing. The 1950s version of the “American Dream” has long been outdated, yet our suburban housing models continue to reinforce the social norms of a past era.

“Degendering Suburbia: Speculations on a New Dream” proposes a degendering of the 1950s American tract house suburb through the speculative addition of shared social spaces and alternative housing typologies. These additions to the existing homogeneous suburban landscape produce interwoven social gradients that delaminate the traditionally isolating nature of the “feminine” domestic realm in the private house. The familiar construction methods of the framed wall and the gabled roof are reappropriated to make visible the fluidity and flexibility necessary for modern domesticity. Strategic deconstruction and reallocation of domestic program and property operate against the physical bounds of the private home and the social bounds of the property line. To this end, the thesis speculates on a new dream through the comparative retrofitting of two typical suburban tract housing developments.