Tackling Suburbia

The latest competition out there challenging entrants to envision visionary designs is Reburbia: A Suburban Design Competition that focuses on the suburbs as the venue for exploration. Sponsored by Inhabitat and Dwell, the premise is open and relatively simple:

"Show us how you would re-invent the suburbs! What would a McMansion become if it weren’t a single-family dwelling? How could a vacant big box store be retrofitted for agriculture? What sort of design solutions can you come up with to facilitate car-free mobility, ‘burb-grown food, and local, renewable energy generation? We want to see how you’d design future-proof spaces and systems using the suburban structures of the present, from small-scale retrofits to large-scale restoration—the wilder the better!"


The entry qualifications are relatively open-ended, and include 5 images and a brief statement - meaning there is going to be a wide variation of ideas and innovations - but a lot of it is going to hinge of zoomy graphics and provocative design. While not quite the star-studded jury for the WPA 2.0 competition (more on that soon), it's a great and lower-input way to generate a range of opportunities for a part of our development world that is dire need of it.

There's really no excuse not to at least have a quick brainstorm and submit. Deadline is August 1, 2009.