Building a better big box
For many people, suburbs have a bad reputation: too bland, too boring. Alexander D’Hooghe would like to change that perception.D’Hooghe, a Belgian-born architect and director of the Center for Advanced Urbanism at MIT, cares deeply about urban form and the large-scale issues cities face in achieving more efficient energy use, better transportation and less congestion. One of his main concerns is better integrating suburbs with the larger metropolitan areas in which they exist. Alexander D’Hooghe, and associate professor of architecture and director of the Center for Advanced Urbanism at MIT. Photo: M. Scott Brauer “The future of our cities is in the gradual densification of our suburbs,” D’Hooghe says. After all, he thinks, not all suburbs have to take the form of sprawling tracts: “We need to do some myth-busting about that.” Instead, D’Hooghe believes, suburban areas can have better-designed public and commercial spaces, and better transit hubs, if we’re willing...