The objective of this study is to investigate living and housing conditions from the viewpoint of urban sustainable development. The focus is on organic urban structures, architectural variety, accessibility to services and institutions, community involvement, sustainable lifestyles, as well as mobility patterns and transport structures. The urban settlement of Hervanta was chosen for the field study. It is a major suburb (25,000 inhabitants) in the Finnish municipality of Tampere (200,000 inhabitants) and located next to the area of Vuores, where the city is planning a new suburb for 13,500 people. The research has a two-fold aim: first of all, to analyse the living and housing situation in Hervanta and to determine if Hervanta is a sustainable settlement, and secondly, to use the gained knowledge to challenge the existing plans for Vuores.