An Te Liu

In Lost in Transaction, An Te Liu brings together elements from two projects that take the suburbs as their starting point. Rather than present-day suburbs, Title Deed and Pattern Language look at examples from North America’s earliest post-war wave of suburban development. Although their modular, mass-produced designs resulted in the cheapest possible construction for the highest possible profit, they now seem quaint and somehow idyllic when compared to the monster homes and acres of treeless streets that now extend the limits of our cities. But beginning in the immediate post-war period, this model of development literally paved the way for our current highway-based infrastructure, sev­ering housing from the social and economic benefits of mixed-use communities, and ensuring continued reliance on the automobile.