Creating More Permeable Spaces

In this James Howard Kunstle keynote, the author provides an in-depth and critical analysis of the suburban sprawl that has taken over in the United States today. Describing suburbia as the "greatest misallocation of resources in the history of the world," he sees it serving no purpose whatsoever. He contributes that these places simply are not worth caring about.

He believes that the public realm of America has two roles including the dwelling place of civic life and the physical manifestation of the common good. By transforming public space into suburban areas, we are lowering the quality of our life. He sees a future in which the nation will not be worth defending due to its landscapes and wasted resources.

He argues that the country needs to move towards more permeable spaces, because as it stands today, suburbia is destroying society's understanding of urban and rural.