An Incomplete Catalog of Suburban Alternatives

Gail Borden, FAIA, Borden Partnership

“As if proclaiming the end of the repetitive suburban residential typology that defined the late 20th century, these projects suggest that a vast range of far more diverse futures of domestic architecture may finally be within reach. The craft, intelligence, optimism and energy of this project are palpable, making this work both compelling and deeply encouraging to read.” 

—Jimenez Lai

In a post-oil suburban Houston landscape, the transition in land use to residential single-family housing presents an opportunity for a series of seedling houses to instigate neighborhood densification. Interweaving productive landscapes among houses, the development explores remediation and the evolutionary creation of community. The houses are prototypes: a catalog of alternatives that rethink contemporary single-family domesticity. They each employ a distinct formal and organizational approach to support diverse scales, lifestyles, and ways of living. On each site, a capping plate seals the ground as a blanket, with the house operating atop this shield. The entire collection subscribes to principles of indoor-outdoor continuity, adaptable live-work and recreation spaces, clear spatial divisions, sustainable construction, and productive indigenous landscapes to mediate the ground and its occupation.