“Yet some how the suburb managed to impose its own logic. In architecture and landscape, essential dualism, both spatial and temporal, were denied…And buried not far beneath the surface of its apparent uniformity lie distinctions that depend less on origin then on activity.

-Visions of Suburbia 

Structure and community are intertwined in our everyday life.  Often these communities become so familiar that we do not take notice of them or question the role that they have in our lives. Structure is both architectural as well as a base for the make up of the communities. The development and functioning of neighborhoods and the individual’s role in that same neighborhood is important for communities to exist.

By photographing a suburban neighborhood built in the late 1940’s in the town of Fair Lawn, New Jersey, the idea of structure and community are important. This cluster of homes, as well as homes in many other communities, is made up of similar architectural structures, new and old. I find these structures fascinating. The older structures were originally built to look the same and these homes have taken on their own identities through modifications that have been made to both the architectural structure and its surrounding landscape over a long period of time. Each home has been changed from when it was first built. It is impossible to know exactly what the original could have been when looking at all the houses in the community.

Though all of these modifications have taken place, the most interesting part of these homes is how they have basically remained the same. This allows the particular visual details and differences to stand out. The people who live in these homes then create the identity of each structure, and how they relate to and fit into the community.