Learning to Design for Social Sustainability Through the Synthesis of Two Approaches

Learning to Design for Social Sustainability Through the Synthesis of Two Approaches

Ar. Maharishi Thula, Assistant Professor at Anant National University

Although there is consensus that urban form could contribute to social sustainability, how socially sustainable development may be delivered is not well understood and lack in comprehensive studies. It is unclear whether social impacts of urban development are to be addressed as: (1) a precondition or outcome of environmental and economic sustainability (G.Assefa, 2007); (2) as social outcomes such as equity, poverty reduction and livelihood, or softer issues such as wellbeing and happiness (Elsa Addessi, 2005); or (3) as relations between people taking into account the formal and informal rules which govern the behaviour of organisations and individuals (Ashcroft 2009).

Therefore, clearer directions to deliver physical infrastructure geared for social sustainability is still being explored. Against such a background, this paper synthesises two approaches which explored how the design of urban neighbourhoods could contribute to social sustainability. The first arose from the SUE-MOT (sustainable urban environments: metrics, models and toolkits) project and identified the physical attributes of neighbourhood that may contribute to social capital through a comparison of the academic and practice based literatures. The second piece of research was a ‘Learning through action’ real-life neighbourhood project for a marginalised community in Sri Lanka, designed with the primary objective of contributing to social sustainability with explorative ideas and design strategies. These top-down and bottom-up approaches to the same problem provide an interesting learning opportunity that contributes to the knowledge base of how urban form may address social sustainability.