Perspectives on mixing housing types in the suburbs

摘要

Planners typically promote diversity and mixing as desirable social objectives: they assume that mixing housing types will generate social interaction and tolerance. Our research considers what those producing (i.e. planners, developers and municipal leaders) and those consuming (i.e. residents) Canadian suburbs believe mixing housing types can and does achieve. We examined suburban development trends using a comparative case study approach in four provinces. While planners and municipal councillors often advocated the benefits of mixed housing types, developers mitigated the risk of mixing at the neighbourhood scale by employing design strategies that separated particular housing types into price-sensitive pods, and residents remained sceptical about desirability of individual difference at the block level. Planners' ability to encourage block-level mixing in new areas remains constrained by homeowner perspectives that have changed relatively little over decades.