Retrofitting for Fecundity

from the Next American City blog:


Retrofitting for Fecundity
June Williamson | Lab|log | Feb 29th, 2012





Shuttered shopping malls, foreclosed homes and businesses, and hours spent in traffic speak to the failures of the North American suburban growth machine, fueled since the mid-twentieth century by the seductive thrills and excesses of a culture of mass consumption and easy disposal. We have embraced the necessity of recycling discarded goods and consumer waste. Can we scale up to an ethical stance that demands the robust retrofitting of our vast urban and suburban landscapes of consumption?

How might designers and planners assist in this conceptual shift—desperately needed in so many communities—to a renewed culture and politics of production and reuse?

One way is to demonstrate the potential for repurposing buildings and urban infrastructure for productive uses: For vocational training, localized food production and processing, renewable energy R&D, affordable housing near mass transit and the creation of public spaces for social connection, services and exchange.

In recent years my time has been spent researching case studies of suburban retrofitting: The reinhabitation, redevelopment and regreening of vacant malls, strip centers, big-box stores, office parks and garden apartment complexes. Successful retrofits typically involve the introduction of a synergistic mix of uses within an urban-design framework that promotes walking and supports mass transit. But these uses are often limited to a “live, work and play” redevelopment model imbued with assumptions about white-collar workplaces and shopping-as-leisure, eliding thorny issues of class and race, as well as ecology—all vitally important to maintaining an equitable, robust democracy. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://americancity.org/buzz/entry/3395/