In his book, Architectureand disjunction (1994), Bernard Tschumi invited architects to avoid seeing architecture as the faithful product of dominant society. He criticised the traditional view defining the role of architects as projectors of the current image of the government and society into their buildings. Instead, he proposed that architectural space can act as “a peaceful instrument of social transformation, a means of instigating a new lifestyle”, and as a catalyst for change. Architecture’s role as an agent of change and instrument of social transformation is paramount within the low-density context of Australian suburbia.Recent literature and built projects have taught us that creating better suburbs is key to better cities. Projects of suburban retrofitting now abound across Australia. In the region, a telling example is the foundation of the Suburban Futures organisation based in Brisbane to promote practical solutions for a more active and inclusive suburban life. However, while the focus of most emerging initiatives is on activating streets and public spaces, this project shifts attention towards residential sites to explore their latent capacities in revitalising suburbia socially and spatially through architecture and design.The city of Gold Coast in Australia is selected as the case study, where residential sites comprise around 80% of the suburban built environment dominated by detached housing typology surrounded by plenty of private outdoor spaces. The project argues and illustrates that if innovatively reimagined, these sites can herald better, healthier and more sustainable suburban life. The project seeks retrofitting solutions for single-storey detached houses to achieve its goals. It explores sustainable, innovative and cost-effective design strategies to unleash latent design potential embedded within the existing domestic sites and will investigate the extended socio-economic values of such interventions in activating suburban streets, thereby fostering a healthy, prosperous, and forward-looking suburban lifestyle.