I read in Architectural Record 12.2014 (page 148) that “creating socially sustainable environments that improve the health and well-being of community members is now a given” – in a commercially sponsored article ‘A Placemaking Approach to Design.’ This is an instance of how sensitivity to community considerations has become part of the architectural mainstream. On the other hand, the remainder of the article describes Prof. C C Benninger’s ten ‘principles of intelligent urbanism’ underpinning the curriculum at the School of Planning he founded in Ahmedabad in 1971 – and not one of them includes ‘bottom-up’ social sustainability. What is celebrated instead is how “innovative architecture firm LEVENBETTS (sic) developed a visionary plan for a New Orleans community that had been hit hard by the hurricane” (p.151). The principle of ‘conviviality’ promotes ‘third place’ areas “of social interaction outside the two primary areas of home and work” as envisioned in Ray Oldenburg’s book ‘The Great Good Place’ but it is asserted that “design can realize this goal” with no suggestion that members of the community should be involved. Two other names are cited however – Jane Jacobs and William H Whyte, who “advocated for cities that catered not just to cars and shopping centers but also to people” (p.148): check these authors for quotes about involving citizens in the development of their environment.
Social sustainability — incompatible with a technocratic approach?
