Suburban Living in the House!

Two things:

1) Check out the December/January issue of Dwell! The theme is suburbs, and some of the articles are still available online. They acknowledge the downsides of suburbia, without uniformly slamming it without basis. The following quote shows how balanced Dwell was in handling the suburbs, which was probably difficult because there is a huge anti-suburban bias out there in designers (and as I’ve mentioned before, urban planners).

But the suburbs–and their inhabitants–are not only ripe for resistance to conformity, they also have rich social and cultural potential. Demographic studies reveal that suburbia is diversifying; no longer the land of white flight and middle-class nuclear families, its shape and character is changing. (p. 134)

2) This one is for the grad students! (And for a brief second, made me a little sad that I am no longer one.) Global Suburbs–an interdisciplinary grad student conference put on by the University of Michigan. March 7-8, 2008.

This conference has five broad themes: Suburban politics and the history of suburbs, Sustainable development and environmentalism, Suburban life, Suburban form, and Rethinking suburbs. The following quote sums up the purpose pretty well.

Suburbanization is no longer solely the province of developed Western countries. Peripheral metropolitan expansion is now a global phenomenon and must be considered in new ways, be they within a metropolitan framework, independently of central cities, or with reference to rural surroundings. This conference seeks to examine global suburban development broadly to understand not only the past and present character of suburbia, but also with the hopes of understanding and guiding future development.

Tags: architecture, design, Dwell, Global Suburbs, graduate conference, interdisciplinary, planning, policy, suburban living, suburbs, University of Michigan
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Going For That “Just Moved In” Look.

Here are photos of my new apartment in Elgin.

The living room prior to the futon purchase…

…and since the futon purchase. Note the awesome Derek Erdman painting.

The kitchen. Those yellow flowers were a gift on Date Night.

Antique China.

The office. I haven’t actually done work in there yet, due to the boxes and the fact that I cannot afford to buy a chair for the desk. The desk is a drafting table from my childhood, back when I wanted to be an artist/art teacher/architect.

Sometimes I do my work on the kitchen floor. Hopefully I can get the office into a usable state over this weekend.

This is where I live now? Alright, I’ll make myself right at home.

You putting that silver thing in my face again girl? Can’t a dog get a moment of peace?

The bedroom. The clothes are put away now. I still can’t believe Cockroach climbed that mountain so he could lie down in a laundry basket. My dog is a weirdo. That’s probably why we work so well together.

Tags: apartment, Belgian Griffon, Brussels Griffon, clutter, design, dog, dogs, home, home decorating, interior design, mess, moving boxes, unpacking
Filed under Elgin, animals, photography | Comment (1)