Water Can Redefine the Suburbs

Designed for the automobile, suburbia’s concrete streets hold together individual properties, with boundaries drawn in the lawns, designating theirs from yours. Water doesn’t follow these lines. We propose reassembling suburban communities based on the varying scales of the watershed. Delineated through hydrology, existing suburban patterns can introduce new opportunities for civic responsibility, creating social capital in an environment that lacks sustainable community life. What is a watershed? We all live in a watershed, but varying points in the land flow into different sheds depending on the slope. Natural and manmade topography can then inform a methodology that reconfigures suburban community boundaries into varying scales: Regional Basins, Shed Committees, Sub Shed Boards. By modifying surface materials, spaces receive new roles in the water cycle: permeating, filtering, collecting; and suggest new programs for the residents: congregating, sharing, conserving. Acworth, Georgia was selected as a testing ground. The Southeastern Drought of 2007-09 affected nearly half of Georgia, prompting watering bans, forcing people to rethink their water use. Homeowners have drilled wells for groundwater, tapping a public resource in their back yard. In becoming part of a “shed community” households become accountable for their water use. Employing these sheds within existing suburbs reveals new relationships, redefining the boundary of neighborhoods, cities and countries.