Retrofitting Suburban Homes for Resiliency: Design Principles

The housing options in North American suburbs will fail to meet many future housing needs. An aging population, a younger generation who prefer walkable places, economic shifts, and the environmental impacts of suburban development are all contributing factors. Suburban retrofitting is occurring or imminent in many suburbs to stave off obsolescence. Although several models exist for the sustainable development of greenfields or large swaths of land, limited models exist for the retrofitting of existing suburban housing stock. To avoid poorly-designed retrofit schemes, this research proposes retrofit design principles aimed at dividing large suburban homes into multiple housing units. A set of design guidelines and practical examples of how large suburban homes can be divided are presented for use by homeowners (or their contractors) to begin the division of a single-family home. The main goal is to equip homeowners and their contractors with the knowledge to divide homes into independent, well-designed, and livable units. Two example divisions are shown with before and after division floor plans along with an explanation of how the guidelines were applied. This research contributes to a burgeoning paradigm shift in terms of the decision-making process at all levels of regional planning, with the expectation to lead to more innovative designs for housing division projects.