Tiny back yards
There is a neighborhood in the town I live in that is an anomaly with the community culture in it. About every second house has someone in the front yard doing a thing, whether it be working on a car or reading the paper or knitting or gardening. I've always been curious as to why this is and why I don't see people in their front yards outside of this neighborhood. At first I thought it was a socioeconomic consequence because that is the 'poor' neighborhood though really every neighborhood is statistically poor in this town. However, when I checked google maps the answer became quite clear; The houses in this neighborhood have tiny backyards.
So its architecture? I think this is a very interesting phenomenon that I want to explore, how architecture can promote what feels like a sense of community even tho all its doing is forcing people to do things in a place they can be seen.