Suburbia

If your interest lies more within suburban communities and the rise of the ‘urban villiage’ maybe these examples will help you narrow down your topic:

Example suburban dissertation topic 1:

The urban village? Middle class architecture and the rise of suburbia in Britain, 1919-2000.

The expansion of suburbanisation in the inter-war years and thereafter with ribbon developments emanating from the majority of county boroughs nationwide heralded a return to the ‘rural idyll’ by the middle classes. Through this expansion of the urban townscape there was a desire to remain ‘with the city’ whilst also enjoying the rural lifestyle. This desire towards gentrification was particularly prominent in housing designs that incorporated the use of ‘mock Tudor’ facades. Using the example of Derby and its outer lying suburban areas this dissertation looks at the architectural and social clashes that developed from the 1930s onwards with particular reference to vernacular architectural styles used in the commissioning of both private residential estates and social housing estates of the period.

Suggested initial topic reading:

• Archer, J. (2005). Architecture and suburbia: From English villa to American dream house, 1690-2000. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota.
• Fishman, R. (1989). Bourgeois utopias: The rise and fall of suburbia. New York: Basic Books.
• Maudlin, D. (2009). ‘Constructing identity and tradition: Englishness, politics and the neo-traditional house’, Journal of Architectural Education, Vol. 63, pp. 51-63.