Book Discussion: Brave New Home
Join us for a conversation about the book Brave New Home, by Diana Lind. This event is co-hosted by the South Burlington Affordable Housing Committee and the South Burlington Public Library. The book explores how traditional housing models shape our communities and imagines more flexible, inclusive approaches to meeting modern housing needs. The discussion is co‑hosted by CVOEO and the South Burlington Housing Committee. This event is free, hybrid, and open to the public. We invite all community members to join us in learning, connecting, and exploring how fair housing supports a thriving, inclusive South Burlington.
About the Author:
Diana Lind is an author and nonprofit executive. She is the Philadelphia Program Officer of the Asset Funders Network and the founder and author of The New Urban Order Substack.
Her most recent book is Brave New Home: Our Future in Smarter, Simpler, Happier Housing (2020). As editor in chief and executive director of Next City, and in roles at Architectural Record, New Cities Foundation, Van Alen Institute, and Penn Institute for Urban Research, Diana has become known as an expert on urban policy and housing.
Diana is a frequent public speaker, and has given keynotes or participated in panels at more than 100 events, including major conventions, such as the World Urban Forum and Smart City Expo.
Diana has contributed op-eds and articles to many publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Philadelphia Inquirer, and The Globe & Mail. She has written extensively for Architectural Record, Next City, and The Philadelphia Citizen. She is also the author of Brooklyn Modern: Architecture, Interiors & Design (2008).
In addition, she runs her own consultancy, Brave New Consulting, where she helps clients with convenings, communications, trendspotting, and more. Recent clients include AARP, Urban Land Institute, enviri, Yum! Brands, and BDP Impact Real Estate.
A graduate of Cornell University (B.A., English) and Columbia University (M.F.A. in Creative Writing), Diana has also held positions at The Philadelphia Inquirer, The Chamber of Commerce for Greater Philadelphia, and the Penn Fels Policy Research Initiative. She has received honors such as the TED City 2.0 prize, the ACLU Stand Up for Freedom Award, and a funded residency at Blue Mountain Center.
Born and raised in Manhattan, she lives in Philadelphia with her family.
She can be reached at dianalindheller@gmail.com.
About the Book:
This smart, provocative look at how the American Dream of single-family homes, white picket fences, and two-car garages became a lonely, overpriced nightmare explores how new trends in housing can help us live better.
Over the past century, American demographics and social norms have shifted dramatically. More people are living alone, marrying later in life, and having smaller families. At the same time, their lifestyles are changing, whether by choice or by force, to become more virtual, more mobile, and less stable. But despite the ways that today’s America is different and more diverse, housing still looks stuck in the 1950s.
In Brave New Home, Diana Lind shows why a country full of single-family houses is bad for us and our planet, and details the new efforts underway that better reflect the way we live now, to ensure that the way we live next is both less lonely and more affordable. Lind takes readers into the homes and communities that are seeking alternatives to the American norm, from multi-generational living, in-law suites, and co-living to microapartments, tiny houses, and new rural communities.
Drawing on Lind’s expertise and the stories of Americans caught in or forging their own paths outside of our cookie-cutter housing trap, Brave New Home offers a diagnosis of the current American housing crisis and a radical re-imagining of future possibilities.
Purchase “Brave New Home”: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/diana-lind/brave-new-home/9781541742666/?lens=bold-type-books