Picture: Sustainable Suburbia © MacCormac Jamieson Pritchard.

This is an exhibition and event notice: Spring Green at Bristol Architecture Centre until June 8 2008.

Suburban bliss as the future is the idea being put forward at Spring Green 2008, which launched this month at The Architecture Centre in Bristol.

The Spring Green programme, which runs until June 8, is supported by the architect Richard Rogers and includes various exhibitions, events and talks that aim to provoke debate and discussion about the neighbourhoods we live in.

The theme of this year’s programme is ‘Shaping Sustainable Neighbourhoods’, with issues such as climate change and housing shortage being tackled in an effort to find a workable solution to these ever-increasing problems.

The major idea being discussed is how suburban homes could change the future of housing and how suburbia can be designed to create a sustainable, healthy and enjoyable living space.

Richard Rogers, Patron of The Architecture Centre and former chair of the government’s Urban Talk Force, said: “Architects and planners have often neglected, or even derided, suburbs."

Tim Crocker © Abode, Proctor and Matthews Architects

"Suburbs may lack the urban vitality and mix many of us enjoy, but they provide a quieter, greener environment for families and can enhance the mix of housing that a city can offer," he continued. "But to make our suburbs work, you need intelligent and design-led planning. Architecture is not just about aesthetics, it has social, moral and political dimensions.”

Highlights of Spring Green ‘08 include an exhibition titled ‘Suburban Futures: Designing sustainable neighbourhoods’ which runs until June 8, and encourages thought on how outer urban areas can be made more sustainable as well as proposals for sustainable urban extensions and ‘eco-towns’.

‘An eco-village on our doorstep: Building the future at Hanham Hall’, is a talk taking place on April 3 regarding Hanham Hall near Bristol, set to be the first ‘eco-village’ in Britain, and a prototype for future projects.

Gillian Fearnyough, Director of The Architecture Centre, Bristol said: “We want to move the debate away from numbers and ‘housing units’ to thinking about how we can build great places to live.”