Professionals who plan cities for our future communities are about to be told they need to expand their approach to Urban Design to put a greater emphasis on social sustainability. Urban Design consultant John Byrne is about to issue the challenge to planning industry professionals.
The Adjunct Professor in Urban Design at Queensland University of Technology will tell the Planning Institute of Australia (PIA) Queensland Conference next week that social sustainability is not being taken seriously enough and too often the term remains merely words.
"It's about time we tried to understand better the characteristics of a truly human city that actually creates opportunities for people to grow and prosper as individuals and as communities," Professor Byrne said.
"We don’t seem to be addressing the issues well enough. We need to engage more seriously with those elements in a city or community that support people culturally, spiritually, developmentally, as well as in physical health terms, when we plan our spaces.
"There seems to be a significant amount of research and speculation pointing us to real human needs but in planning we don't talk about these sorts of things. Perhaps we are scared to go there," he said.
Professor Byrne said the planning profession needs to look at the bigger picture rather than just tick the boxes for the required facilities in a neighbourhood.
"Too many impact assessment studies appear superficial. They talk about the current population and what it might be in the future and they don't say anything beyond that. They just say there are the facilities the neighbourhood will need. Sure we probably need the facilities … but is that enough for social sustainability?
“Too often we don’t defend those urban design strategies that might, for example, better meet the essential human need for social interaction. We seem inclined to treat them as niceties, optional aesthetic extras, rather than as important strategies in the pursuit of social sustainability…and therefore requirements of a development.
“The pursuit of economic and environmental aspects of sustainability is of course important. But it’s not enough. If face-to-face human interaction is shown as essential in a healthy community, what does that mean, for example, for the way we design neighbourhoods or centres or transport systems or hospitals?
"If we could see a clear link between human or community need and an urban design strategy, would we not demand it of a public or private developer? Shouldn’t we stop saying ‘we encourage’ or ‘we urge” and start saying ‘we insist’?
"We need to look at evolving areas of research on what it is to be human and healthy. We hear more and more about the urgent health impacts of physical exercise and we are beginning to relate it to neighbourhood design. But we are also discovering that other things like happiness, joy and laughter have a serious positive impact on our health. What does that mean for our cities?
“Modern communications technology is fantastic but can it substitute for face to face human experience? Worse might it divert our attention from considering other needs?
“So what is to be the expanded contribution of planners to the development of truly human cities?
Download the orIginal here : http://www.planning.org.au/documents/item/850
