Co-producing, curating and reconfiguring dwelling patterns: A design anthropological approach for sustainable dwelling futures in residential suburbs

The increasing polarization of sustainability debates has enhanced the need for designers to re-engage with the politics of sustainable futures. This paper explores these debates in Flemish suburban dwelling contexts, where sustainable development strategies such as densification and depaving trigger conflict between dwellers, policy-makers, designers and organisations. This research investigates how a design anthropological approach could enable design researchers to go beyond polarization by collaboratively researching the politics of how dwelling futures are being shaped in people's everyday lives. It explores the co-production, curation and reconfiguration of dwelling patterns; an approach that combines the situated approach of design anthropology and the dialogical approach of participatory design in engaging with the politics of everyday dwelling and dwelling futures.