Importance Of Social Design Essay

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DESIGNING FOR SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY

“The architecture was award winning - but the lifestyle? There’s more going on at local cemeteries.” Spiegel Online, describing City Nord, Hamburg (2010)
(Spiegel, 2010)

As the world’s population and ecological challenges grow in the 21st century, it is of paramount importance that new cities, towns and communities strive for “sustainability” - economically, environmentally and socially - without reducing the capacity of future generations to have their needs met.

It has been reported that our urban citizens will constitute 61% of our world population by 2030.
(UN, 2005,Pg 9)

Providing safe, clean and affordable places to live is not a new idea, there is a long history of how built environment influences human behavior and social interaction; how high quality, well enhanced public spaces can increase feelings of psychological well-being; how design can make urban environments more legible and can assist people in wayfinding; the role that natural green spaces play in creating an environment conducive to health; and how to design against crime. However, the social significance of upcoming urban growth, which is crucial to humankind’s future, still receives insufficient attention in development planning. In many cities, decent neighbourhoods remain a dream for the majority of the population, while building authorities consider socially sustainable housing an impractical burden.

“Social sustainability is all about our quality of life, at the present and in the future. It is the extent of how a neighbourhood supports residents and prioritizes their well-being. Social sustainability focuses on how the people who live in one area or space relate to one another and function collectively as a comm...

... middle of paper ...

...that the greatest cities have never been “ earthly utopias” but rather ….places of stress and conflict and sometimes actual misery… places where the adrenalin pumps through the bodies of the people and through the streets on which they walk; messy places, sordid paces sometimes….
(Marshall, R., 2004 Pg 9)

Science and technology contributes a great deal to development, but they cannot do everything; above all they do not offer a ready-made solution to the problem of values caused by the clash between tradition and modernity.
(Jeantet,C., 1994)

The Young Foundation, a leader in social innovation, has developed a framework containing four elements that are essential for building new communities that will be successful and sustainable in the long term.
These are:
- Amenities and social infrastrucutre
- Social and cultural life
- Voice and influence
- Space to grow

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