Exploring Concepts of Sustainable Urbanism and

Neighborhood
Kshitiz Kumar Singh - A/3426/2020 | Srijak Maurya - A/3479/2020 |
Saket Kumar Singh - A/3321/2019 | Yanamala Akhil - A/3346/2019.
____________________________________________________________________________

Abstract:

The purpose of this study is to explore and understand the concepts of sustainable urban
planning and its neighborhood and its importance on the development communities and review
key aspects of the market presence for the sustainable neighborhood and key issues in terms of
concepts, principles and challenges.

The study will focus mainly on sustainability of urban cities and what role market plays in the a
built environment, by doing comparative studies of different market present in sustainable urban
cities and how they are more efficient in compression to market strategies used for
non-sustainable urban areas.

Introduction

Sustainable Urbanism is an urban planning and design approch that seeks to create cities that
are more environmentally, socially, and economically sustainable.
Some key concepts of sustainable urbanism include:
1. Walkability: Sustainable Urbanism promotes walkable cities where people can easily
walk or ride to work, shops and other destinations. This reduces the need for cars and
promotes a healthier lifestyle.
2. Transit-Oriented Development: Sustainable Urbanism encourages the development of
neighbrhood that are centered around public transportation hubs. This makes it easier
for people to getaround without a car and reduces congestion and air pollution.
3. Mixed-Use Development: Sustainable Urbanism promotes mixed-used development
where residential, commercial and institutional uses are integrated into single
neighborhood. This reduces the need for car trips and encourages social interaction.
4. Green Spaces: Sustainable urbanism promotes the creation of parks, greenways and
other open spaces that provide habitat for wildlife, improve air and water quality and
provide recreational opportunities for people.
Sustainaleble Neighborhood: Sustainable neighborhood are communities that are designed to
be socially, economically and environmentally sustainable.
Toachieve sustainable neighborhood we need to have Community Engagement, Renewable
Energy, Resources Conservation and Local Food Systems. (AlQahtany Ali, et al, 2012)
Research Objectives
The specific objectives of this research are:

1. To investigate and critically review the existing concepts/definitions and identify the need for
sustainable urbanism in developing countries using Nigeria as a case study.
2. To analyze/review the role of sustainable urbanism within the urban neighborhood fabric of
cities across the world.
3. To test and examine the fundamental objectives of sustainable urbanism and propose a
neighborhood sustainability assessment tool as well as sustainability indicators and benchmarks
for measuring its successful implementation based on the outputs from objective 1 and 2.

Sustainable Urbanism is a recent term prevalent in urban design and planning. Within
the contemporary metropolitan environment, it is rooted in the study of sustainability and urban
design in a rapidly urbanizing world. Though the terminology benefits from the debates around
the definition(s) and meaning(s) of “sustainability,” it lacks a comprehensive understanding of
“urban design.” This paper is an examination of sustainability peculiar to urban development
and a critique of the nature of urban design delineating Sustainable Urbanism. Specific research
questions are: what is sustainable urbanism, how can sustainability be defined in reference to
the city, and what are the important elements of sustainable urbanism.
Traditionally, urban design has been conceived as a discourse in design and has been practiced
as an extension of architecture, urban planning, and civil engineering. In this prevalent
paradigm, urban designers are trained as architects, planners, or engineers, each having one’s
own design bias. Through a critical analysis of urban design, this paper questions the design
dominance and calls for understanding synergies between technology, politics, economics,
society, and environment.(Anirban et al., 2010)

As observed in the Ottoman settlements which reveal an ideal integration with the natural
environment and climate, sustainable urbanism seeks to connect people to nature and natural
systems, even in dense urban environments. In this context, an attempt at integrating such
features as edible landscapes of fruit trees and large vegetable patches (allotments) into the city
would be beneficial for dwellers in terms of lower heating and cooling bills, lower food costs, and
reduced risk of flooding and landslide damage. Trees with canopies can be used for their
shadowing effect, and for the definition of spaces both in streets and courtyards. (Derya Oktay.,
2011).

Sustainable lifestyle.

Everything we do as professionals and as human beings in the name of sustainability means

very little if we don’t actually change environmental behavior of consumers, companies,
communities and governments. Adopting sustainable lifestyles require incorporating a range of
behavioral responses from
energy saving and water conservation, to waste recycling and green consumption, and these
would influence the urban quality of life without damaging the planet for the future. In the
Ottoman city, owing to the preferred simplicity in every aspect of life and self-sufficiency in many
senses, people generally adopted a sustainable lifestyle, and it was a healthy and contended
community.

In today’s cities, what is needed for sustainable lifestyle is “education for sustainable
development” and hence “ecological citizenship”, that would enable urban residents to develop
the knowledge, values and skills to participate in decisions about the ways they do things
individually and collectively, both locally and globally. (Derya Oktay., 2011).

The vision of sustainable urbanism

Cities should be conceived as groups of organisms that have a definable metabolism

made by the resources and products that urban populations use (Girardet 1999). He
demonstrates that natural ecosystems have a circular metabolism in which every output
discharged by one organism becomes an input for some other organism, therefore sustaining
the ecosystem as a whole. On the contrary, cities have a largely linear metabolism: energy
inputs result in greenhouse gas (GHG) outputs3 ; imported food is discharged as sewage; water
coming from faraway sources becomes the carrier for sewage that ends up into water bodies;
raw materials processed into consumer goods end up in landfills haphazardly mixed with
healthy and poisonous substances (ibid). In the following paragraphs, I will outline the major
emerging problems and solutions associated with the resources of energy, land, water, and
waste that are crucial in urban development. By providing ways to handle these resources,
physical planning can contribute to the resolution of global problems

● Environmental imperatives, planning responses: energy

High energy use contributes to a range of problems, the most crucial ones relating to the
global dominance of fossil fuels: coal, oil, and natural gas (95% of the whole, see figure 2).
International oil and natural gas reserves are expected to start declining to a degree that they
cannot meet the increasing demand sometime during the next 20 years (Newman et al. 2009).
Also, the greenhouse gasses produced by their consumption are considered the main cause of
the global warming trend (IPCC 2007).

● Environmental imperatives, planning responses: land

Excessive urban development and automobile dependence does not only induce high
fuel consumption, but the depletion of land itself. Across the world, urban regions are growing
much faster than their populations. Low-density suburban development far from established city
cores requires extensive road networks and other infrastructure. Most importantly, new
development often happens at the expense of valuable farmland and without consideration for
maintaining the integrity of contingent natural areas. Habitat loss and fragmentation are
increasingly the direct results of urban development and the main cause of species extinction
(Beatley 2000b)

● Environmental imperatives, planning responses: water and waste

Urbanized areas require vast amounts of water: in the UK, the average person consumes
around 400 liters of water per day, and in the US as high as 600 liters (Girardet 1999). Water
usually comes from rivers and water bodies far from its final destination, thus destroying river
habitats and fisheries (ibid). The adaptation of water management systems to sustainability
principles requires an immense paradigm shift from the "hard pipe" solutions adopted over a
century ago in the developed world. Essentially, industrialization and rapid urbanization during
the 19* century led cities to centralize water supplies and sewage facilities that remain to the
day (Newman and Kenworthy 1999).

● Environmental imperatives, planning responses: health

The interrelation of the two perspectives becomes obvious in the case of the automobile.
Apart from energy consumption and C02 emissions, the car is at the heart of traffic congestion,
car accidents, air pollution, noise and degradation of local neighborhood life (Wheeler et al.
2004). To address the automobile disrupting effects on neighborhood life regarding noise,
pollution, safety, and fragmentation of public space, some environmentally oriented design
interventions aim not so much at decreasing car use per se but making its presence less
obvious and unpleasant. To this scope are intended interventions such as the pedestrianization
of certain streets and "traffic calming" measures.

Current urban context (Defining Sustainable Urbanism)

At the morning of the third renaissance, the world was thick than ahead. It's inhabited by
further and further people who consume more and who produce further and further adulterants
through their choice and way of life. Such a world seeks further space, further energy, further
coffers, while demanding further safety and buffers in the event of adding possibilities of
disasters. In his book, God’s Last Offer Negotiating for a Sustainable Future, Ed Ayres( 1999)
summarizes the four revolutionary changes sweeping the world and transubstantiating our lives
(1) adding population, (2) adding consumption, (3) adding waste (CO2) product, and (4) adding
extermination of foliage and fauna. Combination of these factors has redounded in a complex
global environment that's characterized by a downturn in the global frugality, deterioration of
global terrain, and breakdown of global connections in terms of mortal conflicts.

The current popular description of sustainable urbanism is also imagined as a grand

junction of armature, megacity planning, and environmental design for a better way of life. This
is problematic as it situates the sphere of sustainable urbanism in the environment of antithetical
and disagreeing design bias of armature, civic planning, geography armature, and civil
engineering. This also underscores a lack of clear description and understanding of
sustainability and sustainable urbanism. (Newman 2005).

Sustainable urbanism: towards a responsive urban design

The current notion of understanding civic design,(fig. 1) reinforces the distinct rigid
boundaries of the three trio rudiments performing inuni-dimensional exclusive perspective of the
civic, for illustration either through major meanings( values), or through land use and power(
conduct), or through formal spatial typology( form). This pontifical model is clashing and
antithetical for understanding the construct of civic design. Alternately, an inclusive approach to
civic design(fig. 3), can be developed by deconstructing the living place model and imagining a
different relationship that's lapping and hierarchical. similar interpretation creates an open
dialogic space of the communicative system and allows nonintercourses and relations to do
among the trio rudiments.

CASE STUDY :

The sustainable urbanism

Markthal, MVRDV, NETHERLANDS

Markthal received a BREEAM Very Good certificate. The building is connected to city heating

and a thermal storage system underneath the building which will also heat and cool a number of

adjacent buildings in the surrounding area. The various functions in the building can exchange

heat and cold. For the hall itself extensive research was conducted to create a comfortable

interior climate with an extremely low energy use. The hall is naturally ventilated, underneath

the glass façade fresh air flows in, it rises towards the roof and leaves the hall through

ventilation shafts in the roof. This is a thermic system which can function without any

installations. A central monitoring system is used to exchange heat and cool between the

different programmes, in this way less installations could be used than normal for these

programmes. The combination of housing, shopping center, parking and market hall makes the

installation technology more efficient. Inside the market, an information panel illustrates the

energy use and CO2 savings of the building. A smart sanitation system is designed to save

water. (2013, Albert Faber et al).

CASE STUDY
MARKET. BARCELONA, SPAIN

Els Encants in Barcelona is a centenarian marketplace, which has traditionally been set
outdoors in an informal way. Its current location is not far from the market’s new grounds and is
going to occupy the junction of Meridiana Avenue with Las Glorias Square. The project's main
objective was to maintain the open nature of the current outdoor market Els Encants. The
limited size of the new grounds (8,000 m2) was a great constraint, as the commercial
programme was more than double that area.

Its design intends to avoid building multiple floors thus rejecting the model of a commercial
center. Instead of that, a continuous commercial area was designed, with slightly inclined planes
intertwining and generating an endless loop which links stalls and small shops. The visitor’s
experience is similar to a stroll through a pedestrian road. By bending the square deck, the
different levels of the streets around the perimeter are reconciled; therefore the levels of thE
various entrances are blurred once inside the market.

SOURCE:https://www.archdaily.com/453829/mercat-encants-b720-fermin-vazquez-arquitectos

The great casing suspended as a canopy almost 25 meter high is a prominent landmark and
protects shopkeepers and users from the sunlight. The casing is arranged by variable-width
bands. Its underside presents different inclinations and becomes a mechanism of reflection of
the city into the market.
BEFORE RELOCATION

AFTER RELOCATION
Source : https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/mercat-dels-encants-b720

Historical development process of gated communities in Konya, Turkey

Since the 1980s, when neoliberal policies made their impact on cities,
gated-communities have begun to take place because of socio-economic and
cultural change. Although gated-communities emphasize security, they
enabled the middle and upper-income groups of similar socio-cultural and
economic structures to live in a closed area and resulted in social segregation.
Besides, the government policies encouraged the construction-oriented
investments and international real-estate companies entered into the
domestic economy (Tanulku, 2017). After the 2000s in Turkey, the production
of housing and built environment has played an active role in urbanization
practices and has been seen as a force to ensure economic stability (Özdemir
Sarı, 2019). In this period, the housing production in Turkey has targeted to
middle and upper-income groups. Housing production in Turkey took place in
the form of gated residential sites produced for this period largely middle and
upper-income groups and it has resulted in affordability challenges for
low-income households (Özdemir Sarı and Aksoy Khurami, 2018). The
housing policies that target the new housing supply cannot solve the
affordability challenges. In addition to housing supply, policies to improve
living standards in existing housing stock need to be designed.

As increasing population and university and industrial zones in the city's

periphery increased the pressure of illegal housing, there was a need for a
holistic and upper scale planning and 1/25.000 scaled Konya Environmental
Plan came into force in 1984. The development of the city in the north
direction continued with this plan. The years between 1990–1998 reform
master plans and revision master plans directed Konya's urban development
and the first big city plan was the 1/25.000 scaled Master Plan, which was
approved in the year 1999.
The plan caused a rapid increase in the production of the built environments
in the northern periphery of the city despite the existence of dense agricultural
land. Figure 1 shows the number of buildings constructed between the years
1992 and 2016 in Konya. Even though the economic crisis in 2001 affected
construction and real estate investments, the construction sector grew rapidly
after 2002 and new building construction reached its highest levels in 2010 in
Konya and the rest of the country. Housing production is the main building
block of this construction-oriented development model, which also has the
state's support. The production of new buildings increased rapidly after 2002
both in Konya and in other cities. Even though this increase in housing
production after 2002 with urban transformation and housing policies of the
country brought the housing bubble problem to the agenda, there was no
decrease in construction activities (Özdemir, 2015).