Flexibility Is Key in Retrofitting Suburbs

The suburbs are spreading rapidly in Australia. By one count, more than 170,000 single-family homes were built on the outskirts of Australian cities between 2006 and 2011. That's one about every 15 minutes. Suburban growth is happening and will continue to happen. But how it happens is becoming a concern. A new report argues that these places – and suburbs everywhere – risk becoming unlivable and undesirable places in the near future.

What suburbs need is more flexibility, argues the report from the Grattan Institute, an independent think tank located in the suburbs of Melbourne. The suburbs being built in Australia today, the report says, are too focused on meeting the short-term needs of current residents, and therefore ignore the long-term. These new suburbs have too much separation of land uses, too uniformly sized housing units and lots, and too little connection to other parts of the cities they abut.