Five Images of a Suburb: Perspectives on a New Urban Development

Abstract

This paper explores five ways in which groups of professionals and activists envisaged urban form in the context of a new suburban development project. The paper is drawn from a case study of a large Australian growth corridor, Rouse Hill, and analyzes how ideas about suburban form were represented in a public debate. Five major perspectives each staked out the contested ground of urban growth in a way that was not likely to be readily altered by even the most ambitious attempts to promote understanding and agreement. Although it is unlikely that such conflicts will be easily resolved, better mutual understanding can focus debates more clearly on key disagreements.