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With shows like Desperate Housewives infiltrating popular culture, suburbia is once again under the spotlight. In the C21st, suburbia is viewed with a cynical lens as evident in its portrayal in pop culture; just think of the movie American Beauty

The bright enthusiasm of the 1950s that energized suburbia's development is now being questioned. We are unsure whether this is the ideal way to live from a social, economic and environmental perspective. Now popular culture is even forcing people to question the morality of the suburbs.

Influx wrote in October 2004 about seniors finding suburban life so boring, that they are flocking back to urban centers.

In the 70s, people were still optimistic about the suburban ideal. Photographer Bill Owens brilliantly captured this in his images of suburban life in Livermore. Owens, now in his 60s and retired from photography, is undergoing something of a revival. There is now an exhibition of his work at the International Center for Photography in New York. One of his books, Leisure has been been re-released with a forward by none other than Sophia Coppola, whose film, The Virgin Suicides, brought 70s suburbia to life so convincingly.

Suburban life is here to stay and as America's population continues to expand to 311 million by 2010, it's only going to become more important. The recent focus in popular culture is just a reaction to this development.

The critical thing to understand is that Suburbia no longer conforms to the classic stereotype, according to author David Brooks "..our image of suburbia is motionless. We think of the suburbs as a place where people with families go to live. In fact, a majority of households in suburbia have no kids. We think of suburbia as white. But in fact, the majority of Asian-Americans live in suburbia; half of all Hispanics live in suburbia; and 40 percent of all African-Americans live in suburbia."

The challenge for those involved in the development of housing and retail is to find away of re-framing Suburbia in a positive way. They need to experiment with ideas that go beyond the mall and the typical housing development. Solutions need to be a little bit more imaginative than the classic "Big Box" store, which could easily end up as the dinosaur of a bygone era.