Prototyping residential subdivisions' experimenting with making and prototyping for collective learning over spatial issues

Abstract

In Flanders (Be), suburban neighborhoods and particularly residential subdivisions made of single-family detached houses still represent the most common way of living. Supported by anti-urban policies, economic possibilities and the stimulation of homeownership (De Decker, 2011), the persistent Flemish housing sprawl saw its acceleration after the Second World War with the establishment of the Flemish 'housing dream': a private house with a garden in a quiet suburban setting (Bervoets and Heynen, 2013; De Vos and Heynen, 2015). The focus on a plot-by-plot development and private initiative and life has resulted in the prioritisation of individual dwelling spaces and practices over the collective dimension and context of inhabiting (De Meulder et al. 1999). Today these environments are confronted with considerable economic, ecological and social challenges. Whereas on an institutional macro-level these challenges are evident and urgent with the development of visions that aim at a more sustainable urbanization (e.g. Spatial Policy Plan for Flanders released in June 2018), on the micro-scale of the neighborhood, these visions have so far failed in having a wide spread impact on the everyday modes of living of the inhabitants. Starting from the hypothesis that change in residential subdivisions can only be durable if supported by processes of collective learning over spatial issues (Elbakidze et al., 2015), the research aims at developing design related tools and techniques for facilitating residents, local authorities and other local organizations and actors to collectively discuss envision and sustain the transformation of suburban residential areas into more sustainable urban environments. To do this, the research advances participatory design methods and in particular making and collective prototyping (i.e. the making of things in participatory design as an open-ended process between material making and participative decision making, Binder et al. 2013). Through making and collective prototyping the actors of residential subdivisions are facilitated to develop their capabilities (Baser and Morgan, 2008) to formulate and reach collective objectives (e.g. urban sustainability) starting by unveiling, evaluating and reworking everyday modes of dwelling and dwelling spaces. This presentation particularly considers and analyses two case-studies in Flanders, in which making and collective prototyping (e.g. a paper sketch model of an average local house and plot with different paper components, furniture, trees, cars...) have been employed for collective learning over spatial issues to facilitate opportunities and challenges for retrofitting the residential subdivisions to contextually emerge and be discussed and evaluated.