Tuning Residential Subdivision Rhythms

Abstract

Since the sixties, Flanders suburbanized at a high pace, supported by a housing policy ocusing on private homeownership and the construction of singlefamily houses through private initiatives (Van Herck & Avermaete 2006). Subdivisions of free-standing single family houses popped up everywhere and became the symbol of the post war success of the middle class. Still today, this is one of the most preferred mode of living for the majority of Flemish, providing social status and (part of the) identity to its residents (Dedecker 2013). However, this mode of urbanization is facing a number of significant challenges. The first challenge is ecological: the ecological footprint of residential subdivisions is too big. They are land and energy consuming. The second challenge is social. Residential subdivisions become increasingly socially and culturally differentiated, comparable with what happened in Flemish cities during the seventies and eighties, leading to comparable social tensions. The third challenge is economic. Flanders is heading for a real estate crisis (Vermeulen & Martens 2015). The land supply is much greater than the demand for land. This means that many land owners will not be able to sell their property unless it is well located, has an exceptional quality or is very cheap. Unfortunately, this doesn’t count for many residential subdivisions. Our hypothesis is that the residential subdivision has to reinvent itself into a more diverse environment to respond to these three-folded challenges. This doesn’t mean that the allotment should radically urbanize or ruralize. The answers will have to match the housing preferences of its residents and will therefore differ from those of the city or countryside. The aim of this paper is to give some clues on how these subdivisions may evolve.