Detached houses are considered primarily responsible for urban sprawl and land consumption. At the same time they represent the ideal residence for broad sections of society. This contradiction was used as the starting point for the Institut Urban Landscape at the ZHAW to take a closer look at detached housing. From the different perspectives of architects and social scientists, as well as photographer Heinrich Helfenstein, different detached house settlements were at the focus of examination. Instead of the often deplored detached house without properties, a surprisingly multifaceted settlement reality with great potential for identification discloses itself. This work focuses on the specific qualities and unused potentials of the phenomenon and yields new insights and perspectives for a sustainable development of urban landscapes in architecture and urbanism.