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  • From green to blue
    Madigan, Damian

    Bluefield Housing as Alternative Infill for the Suburbs, 2024, Volume: 1
    Book Chapter

    Chapter 5 describes the urban morphology associated with the existing green-, brown- and greyfield land definitions in common use and the types of housing undertaken in each. It discusses their roles in quarantining older character suburbs from broad strategic infill policy, and argues that established suburbs exempted from infill policy should be given their own definition and housing model as the 'bluefields', where an alterations and additions infill model makes sense. Private domestic yards, often decorative to the front while more operative at the rear, are defining features of suburban living. They are the spatial buffers that can cocoon a house and help establish its setting as a home within a garden. The greenfields are those areas on the fringes of a city that have never been used for housing. They may be agricultural lands which are now more valuable as sites for housing than for farming. The extent of green and recreational infrastructure across a greenfield development is planned relative to the number of allotments realised and overall scale of the new suburb, with facilities often mandated by or developed in coordination with the local authority. As manufacturing shifts offshore, large industrial land holdings within city boundaries can become redundant. Large brownfield developments, like their greenfield cousins, can offer a town centre with commercial, retail, hospitality, and service functions.