What Will Our Houses Look Like?

THE SUBURBS BY WES JONES

For better or worse, the suburbs are what America came up with when presented with the chance to manufacture its ideal geography. Come 2025, people will still live in houses within eyeball distance of their neighbors, but the cyberrevolution and the environmental movement promise to alter the landscape. While computers promote a dramatic trend toward decentralization, allowing people to spread out and live or work anywhere, the green consciousness will urge a contrasting densification, to conserve open space. The reconciliation of these opposing trends will define the suburb of the future. As the vastness of cyberspace...