Suburban Infill

Anthony Averbeck
Eric Barr
Joe Brookover

Indianapolis, IN, USA

Ownership, equity, security, privacy - single family residences embody success and freedom in American culture. The free-standing house offers autonomy and anonymity. With its garden plots, private entry, flexible arrangements, and omni-directional daylight, this predominant typology sprawls ubiquitously across the United States. However, current domestic spatial patterns have led to the externalization of childcare and elder-care, disrupting life cycles, and disconnecting people from community. 

Rising costs of housing, education, and healthcare, coupled with non-existent wage growth, bar entry to the housing market for those who aspire to upward mobility. Rarely does the available housing stock allow buyers to choose their neighbors, or live communally within their social circles of friends or family. Suburban Infill proposes a model of domesticity that allows families and friends to create multi-generational communities, systems of support, and shared experiences. Choosing from a catalog of smaller house modules, empty parcels and existing homes can be densified with both connected and detached units organized around communal courtyards.