Suburbia is often criticised for its monotony - streets, houses and garages, trees (if your lucky) and the odd park - all the same.  Through some of our recent projects we have been exploring and testing different ideas for how to challenge the standard suburban pattern and to create better and more interesting places to live.  One such idea has been to re-think the typical suburban street and, in key locations, replacing it with a shared zone and urban plaza that provides a unique community space and pedestrian link whilst still retaining the necessary functions of safety, access, parking and amenity. 

While not claiming to be a solution for all suburban woes, the focus of this project was to investigate new housing and urban forms, challenge existing engineering standards and show that even a small intervention can make a big difference to the overall community by helping to ‘break-up’ the typical suburban model.