Suburbs and the single-family house comprise the principal means through which both ideas of home and the good life have been conceived in the US. Together, they constitute the ideal against which homelessness is defined and understood. This thesis asks, then: what can suburbia teach us about homelessness? How does it operate, grow, and endure? To what extent does it offer clues to solving homelessness? In asking these questions, this thesis reserves judgement on suburbia, and instead examines what Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown would term its “method”. To do so, a new sub-urban zone is proposed, beginning within Skid Row. Adorned with greenery and mimicking the proliferation of suburbs and typified homes, houses sit alongside the area’s existing warehouse fabric and occupy reclaimed territory on its streets. This effort to suburbanise Skid Row aims to rebuild the dignity of its residents in the legible imagery of the American Dream. Ultimately, what happens when the processes of suburban sprawl are inverted, originating instead from the heart of an urban core?
