“From an elevated position, a sea of roofs. Closely packed homes, sprawling towards the hills on the periphery. Areas of green to be infilled over time.
Many shades from Dover White to Night Sky, with Surf Mist speckled here and there. The same hipped profiles. Some with solar, some without. The distinctive metal fencing with promises of longevity, but perhaps a few dents over the years.
Towering structures of pylons overhead, connecting to regional substations before cables disappear neatly underground. An umbilical cord to these new suburbs, green fields and agriculture no longer.
An invasion of trucks and diggers to shift earth. Roads are coming. Infrastructure must keep pace. We need more houses. We must build, build, build. This is a crisis, after all.
The land is re-shaped for habitation. Goodbye, rolling hills. Raw shades of earth exposed, now cut to make way for what’s to come.
New streets that weave through future neighbourhoods. Flat sites created, a matter of convenience. Drop-and-run housing by volume builders will arrive soon.
And here it is. The slabs go down first, of course. Non-insulated, wrapped in bright plastic. Fairly neat, yes, as one would expect. Like anything produced en-mass.
Stick frame goes up, quickly indeed. One home after another. Efficiency through repetition. The framed forms telling of what will be. North? Who knows. Orientation is not considered here.
Materials arrive on site. Wrapped, ready for install. Selected from a glossy ‘zine. Should it be this facade or that?  A catalogue of design choices for a custom, not-custom build.
Banal forms take shape so lacking in character. Visual clutter. A new neighbourhood of same-ness.
A strange condition at the edges. Grassland buts into fences, delineating built from unbuilt. Natural landscape still visible in the distance. Roads will eventually link together as the sprawl of suburbia continues.”

The above is an excerpt from the inaugural ArchitectureAU Asks event. Director Jasmine presented “A Portrait of Sprawling Suburbia” in response to the provocation by 2024 Gold Medal recipient Philip Thalis. Speakers were asked to discuss the ways in which architects could champion the public interest. Jasmine spoke about the need to reform the roll-out of volume housing in suburban growth areas. The photo essay, presented as a series of diptych images, was a collaboration with Adelaide-based photographer Jonathan van der Knaap.