A chapter review of 'Beyond Suburbia: Rise of the Technoburb' from the book 'Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and Fall of Suburbia' by Robert Fishman. This deals with evolution of suburbs in the late 20th century in the USA. This chapter is also available in the book 'The City Reader'.

1. Chapter Review “Beyond Suburbia: Rise of the Technoburb”
Author: Robert Fishman
Illustration Credit: Samantha Lee

2. About the Author
• Robert Fishman is a Professor at University of Michigan, and an
internationally recognised expert in the areas of urban history and
urban policy and planning.
• He has written a few books, which are of utmost importance to the
field of Urban Planning, including 'Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise and
Fall of Suburbia' (1987), of which this chapter is an excerpt.
• His first book, which earned him his academic reputation, 'Urban
Utopias of the Twentieth Century' (1977), talks about the utopian
visions in Urban Planning of Ebenezer Howard, Frank Lloyd Wright
and Le Corbusier.
• He had coined two-new terms of importance to Urban Planning in
this article - "technoburb" or "techno-city", to describe the reality of
evolution of suburbs.
• Among many achievements, he got awarded the 2009 Laurence
Gerckens Prize for lifetime achievement from the SACRPH (Society
for American City and Regional Planning History).
Robert Fishman
Source: https://taubmancollege.umich.edu/faculty/directory/robert-
fishman

3. Geographical Context
• The author places most of his opinion in the
geographical context of the United States of
America.
• Some of the cities/regions that are exemplified
are as follows:
• Redmond, Washington
• Cupertino, California
• New York Metropolitan Region
• Silicon Valley, California
• Route 128, outside Boston, Massachusetts
• Los Angeles, California
• Chicago, Illinois
• Route 1 between Princeton and New Brunswick, New
Jersey
• Route 202 near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania
Silicon Valley, California
Source: https://www.businessinsider.in/careers/the-20-highest-paying-
companies-in-silicon-valley-in-2019/articleshow/71193171.cms

4. What does the Author want to
Communicate?
• The parent book, 'Bourgeois Utopias: The Rise
and Fall of Suburbia’, explores the history of
suburbia.
• In this particular chapter, the key idea that
the author wants to communicate is 'what'
has the suburbia evolved into and , which
the author refers to as a 'technoburb', and
'how’.
• The author also tries to communicate that
literally speaking, 'technoburb’ is no longer a
form of suburb anymore.
Newspaper clipping from ‘The Chicago Tribune’ (Tue, 31 Dec 1991) of the
excerpt from an article by Michael Martinez, talking about the idea of ‘Techno-
burb’ in the context of the suburb (now city) of Naperville outside Chicago,
Illinois and related concerns.
Source: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/22846915/chicago-tribune/

5. A Brief Summary
• The author begins by quoting some
statistics of how post-1945 American
cities grew and the rise of the suburbs.
• The suburb originated as a portion of the
metropolis in 18th century London, but
• in post-war America, there were
simultaneous factors including
decentralization of housing, industry,
jobs and services, which led to the
breakaway of the suburb and it was no
longer reliant on the central core of the
city, hence forming the 'technoburb', an
independent viable socioeconomic unit.
View of a housing development near a farm in Richfield, Minnesota,
showing the gradual post-war American rise of suburbia. (1954)
Source: Minnesota Historical Society Photograph Collection 2/18/1954
Location no. MH5.9 RF1 p4 Negative no. 38227

6. A Brief Summary
• Then, the author discusses the prediction of
H.G. Wells in his 1900 essay 'The Probable
Diffusion of Cities' in which he predicted
this possible decentralization.
• This was even more radicalized by Frank
Lloyd Wright in his concept of the
'Broadacre City’.
• The author then goes on to point out the
seeming lack of structure associated with
the technoburb, primarily, the waste of
land and the waste of energy (with use of
personal automobiles).
• But, the author also points out that there is
an underlying linkage between work and
residence which forms the unseen structure
of the technoburb.
Sketched view of the utopian concept of Frank Lloyd Wright’s ‘Broadacre
City’
Source: B. Pfeiffer, Frank Lloyd Wright 1943–1959: The Complete Works [Vol.
3], edited by Peter Gössel, published by Taschen, 2009

7. A Brief Summary
• The author discusses the making of the
technoburb under two critical and inter-
related driving aspects : housing and job
location.
• The author then puts forward how this
technoburb is flawed in planning -
decentralisation has been a
socioeconomic disaster for the old city
and the poor, and it has contributed
again to a resegregation between the
outer and inner city.
• The various elements in a technoburb
are discordant and haphazardly
located.
A sketch showing the segregation caused by suburbanisation with the example of
schools.
Illustration Credits: Tony Auth
Source: https://thenotebook.org/articles/2016/08/23/study-examines-how-school-
district-borders-exacerbate-school-segregation/

8. A Brief Summary
• But, the author makes a hesitant case for the technoburb as being in its early
stages and any new urban type has been through such a stage of 'awkwardness',
and that an increased understanding over time and contributions from planners
will take it forward and after that, it's economic and social successes are
undeniable.
• The concept of 'suburb' is now, definitely a thing of the past.

9. How does the Author support his Key Ideas?
• The author supports his key ideas through facts
of history, reliable data, and mostly through
well-studied examples and conclusions of some
case studies.
• He also explains his key ideas through the
perspective of housing and job location.
• He also takes the visions of Frank Lloyd Wright's
'Broadacre City' and H.G. Wells' prophecy of the
future of metropolis.
Housing and Job Location were the main factors of how he
explained the evolution of the ‘techno-burb’.
Illustrations Credit: b farias
Source: https://thenounproject.com/bfarias/collection/pins-and-flags/

10. Did I think about these issues before?
• Yes, I have thought in the direction of suburbs
and 'urban sprawl' but I was not aware of the
very new perspective this chapter offers about
the evolution of suburb.
• My thoughts were based on the little knowledge
and information I had about the concept of
'urban sprawl' and how suburbs are formed,
• based on the planning models similar to and
that of Ernest Burgess, which talks about the
'Commuter Zone' as having suburbs which
involves people commuting daily to their
workplace which most often lies in the CBD
(Central Business District).
Concentric Zone Model by Ernest Burgess
Source: http://georgefarrowgeography.blogspot.com/2013/02/is-
burgess-model-still-applicable-today.html

11. On which aspects do I agree with the author?
• Suburbia begins as a portion of the expanding metropolis, and is for a long time
'functionally dependent' on the core.
• In the American context, the suburbia (due to various factors) has become a self-
sustaining city on it's own and hence, in it's true sense no longer a suburbia.
• The planning structure of this new 'techno-burb' has major flaws, but every new
urban type in history has deficiencies or an 'early awkwardness', and develops
over time into a functional model through hit and trial.

12. On which aspects do I disagree with the
author?
• The author praises Frank Lloyd Wright's vision of Broadacre City as something to
study to achieve a 'techno-burb aesthetic', but the Broadacre city has a
fundamental assumption that everyone has a personal vehicle to commute,
which cannot be generalised in a global context.
• I feel the role of public transport has not been covered with sufficient and
clear emphasis as a very pivotal means of transport/commute in this context of
suburbs for people especially in places where not everyone has a personal
vehicle.
• Although, this is justified by the author by the fair argument that in the evolving
technoburb, the 'multiplicity' of destinations makes public transport 'inefficient'.

13. Do I think the Author’s background has a
strong influence on his opinion?
Yes, I think the author has
studied and described
specifically the American
context thoroughly, having
lived there, but there's little to
no reference in this chapter to
a global or generalised
contextual understanding,
which can be used and
extrapolated to a context like
India.
An Indian suburb.
Source:
http://economicdevelopment.org
/2014/01/indias-suburban-
sprawl-is-stifling-city-centers/
An American suburb.
Source: https://finance-
commerce.com/2019/11/comme
ntary-the-changing-face-of-the-
american-suburb/

14. What do I find interesting about this chapter?
There were multiple things I found interesting about the chapter, primarily:
• The logical and history-based explanation of the evolution of suburbs.
• The visions of H.G. Wells and Frank Lloyd Wright about the future of cities, which
were way ahead of their time and especially Wells' prediction was quite
accurate.
• I've never come across a more thorough insight into the evolution and
transformation of the American suburbia.

15. My discussions with Others
I did discuss the article with others, and the difference I had was about my
emphasis on the lack of any significant mention of public transport, but I shared
similarities in terms of how great of an insight this is into American suburban history,
but how it lacks a globalised point of view, especially coming to the ground reality
of the Indian context.

16. Situation relevant to my City
• My city is Noida which developed as an
industrial suburb and is now slowly
breaking away from relying on the
central core of Delhi to a certain extent.
• But, as the author pointed out Noida is
still quit discordant and in the early
stages of a technoburb.
• However, as I’ve mentioned earlier a lot
of things are incomparable given the
author talks about it in an American
context.
Noida Master Plan 2031. Source: https://assetyogi.com/noida-master-plan/

17. What can my City do?
• I think it's a long-term process and I am sure there must be a vision in place,
based on which all the interventions must be made.
• But, I see a problem in my city that there's a heavy reliance on having some
vehicle to commute and public transport.
• Pedestrianisation and preservation of biodiverse areas , still needs more focus.
• So, I think urban planners should consider and look into these two aspects with
requisite focus, if not addressed already.

18. Conclusion
• The author towards the end talks about the importance of preserving open land
as a part of the landscape.
• I think, the idea of preservation of green open areas and biodiverse areas is
gaining more and more importance in the present day, owing to climate change
and it's urgency.
• Since this article was written in the year 1987, the environmental situation is much
worse now and hence, it's more urgent to prioritise the preservation aspect today.