Design for Resilient Communities

Sidewalks are open public spaces that serve pedestrians for walking safely around the city. Regretfully, in some parts of Cairo, Egypt, sidewalks do not only accommodate pedestrians but are claimed—or even taken over by shops, markets, and street vendors, changing the features of the sidewalks, causing harm and threats and depriving pedestrians from a basic right to the city. The paper at hand tackles this topic. It explores the perception of territorially of sidewalks within Cairo’s streets from the viewpoints of both the shop owners as well as pedestrians. The objective is to bi-folded, to redefine sidewalks as secondary territorial spaces, through developing field research tools for environmental behavioral studies. The methodology is based on a literature review of the concepts of walkability and safety. Then, an empirical study is conducted in one of the most controversial Cairene streets, Abbas El-Akkad—Nasr City, and semi-structured interviews with shop owners and survey questionnaire with pedestrians were conducted in addition to an observational study to complement data obtained from the interviews. A pilot study was implemented to get acquainted with the selected street and refine data collection tools. Discussion of the findings addresses the reasons behind the different perceptions of both shop owners and pedestrians. It is aimed that the outcome of this paper encourages environmental behavioral theorists, urban designers, and decision-makers to consider all stakeholders in the ongoing developmental happenings currently taking place in our city victorious.

This visual essay presents the urban renewal, improvement, and design project of the Nicosia Turkish Municipality bus terminal area in Nicosia Central Business District (CBD) as a new mixed-use complex and a public space. After a thorough analysis and evaluation, the project aims to transform the area into a sustainable and liveable place. The study is project-based, relatively micro-scale, ‘planned urban renewal process’ led and publicly structured and aims at environmental, spatial, social, and economic-based urban improvement and development. The project area under study, with the existing intercity bus terminal building, the Municipal Theater building, the Municipality Building, and the parking lot in front of it, is a public area that should be evaluated within the scope of urban renewal and should be improved and developed through a strategic urban planning and design approach, to provide the citizens of Nicosia, sustainable, healthy, resilient, and inclusive public spaces.

This paper examines a recent project for the ‘Angels’ Care Foundation’, based in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. The project aligns with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to ‘leave no one behind’, addressing the panel ‘Design for Resilient Communities’. Central to this design project, lies the mission of Angels’ Care Foundation to: ‘Break the Cycle of Poverty in the uMngeni Municipality by providing hope, love, safety, and care to children’. The Foundation provides indigent children with clothing, nutritious meals, crisis treatment for sexual-abuse, holistic health care, STEAM education, healthy play, and safety. To support the Foundation, a pro bono design collaboration began online and continued throughout the 2020–21 COVID-19 pandemic, both in Australia and South Africa. A feasibility and scoping study was followed with concept designs that supported fund-raising activities in Africa and the USA, to bring a new building to fruition. Our approach was based on leading research, design-led systems thinking informed by the UN-Habitat Urban Agenda, an integrated system for a circular economy, and the principles for net-positive development. Our design targeted specific SDGs including health, sustainability, and climate change, while providing the spatial and design requirements to support the children [3–9 years old] from the adjacent informal settlement—Shiyabazali. This paper focuses on the aspirations of the collaboration, the design produced for the Foundation, and the opportunity to attain a net-positive threshold for sustainability when the accumulated benefits to the children and communities of Shiyabazali are considered.

The visual essay explains a design project through concept, material technology and artistic processes where a ‘non-place’ is transformed into a choreographed social space where the process of design is the research method involving culture, climate and ecology. The design approach pushes the boundary of the conventional through experimental material expressions within the challenge of limited budget to offer an ecologically sound meeting place for the people. A new topography is carved out of the flat land applying the age-old method of dig and mound which would breathe through the tapestry of perforated terracotta brick surfaces. Its presence continually varies with the presence and absence of elements of nature like water and earth, sunlight and shadows, temperature and rain. The flickers of light through the filigree of leaves and perforated metal shades and flow of wind over the watery surface all can recall a memory or collective memories, a deep sensory perception. Ever since it’s opening day to public, the place has been serving as one of the most vibrant public places of Dhaka city. The animated terrain, as it is perceived through its porous breathing body, has gone through seasonal transformations during the last five years. With its sunken open steps surrounding a reflecting water pool, an unique mixture of planted and organically grown trees and bushes, functional service zones carved out of a mound, the project blurs the boundary between landscape, ecology, archeology and architecture.

The adaption and sustainability of architectural designs have led to increasing attention in the past decades due to climate changes. Meanwhile, the progress of urban and rural regeneration has become inevitable after the rapid development of urbanization. Heritage buildings and historic districts play important roles in urban and rural regeneration as they have witnessed transformations of regions while reflecting collective memories and cultural identity. There are challenges faced by the local government in the adaptive-reuse of heritage buildings and sustainable renovation of historic districts. On one hand, the historical space should be revitalized while preserving the genius loci of the site. On the other hand, the resilience of the community should be strengthened via facility management and traffic network optimization, so that the habitability of the residents can be optimized. The economic framework of the district should be promoted by adopting regional characteristics and public participation. Due to the comprehensive demands of the protection and renovation of historic districts and heritage buildings, one of the common issues for design teams during their practice is to identify the priority of design strategies case by case for each project. To solve this issue, the evidence-based design (EBD) framework is introduced in this paper. Based on case studies of Pinghe Packing Plant, Zhang Mansion, Xiedian Village, and the South district of Jianghan Road, this paper discusses the adaptability and sustainability of architecture and communities. The research summarized the main renovation strategies used in each case study while offering ideas and measures for adaptive-reuse and sustainable renewal of historic districts and heritage buildings. The results demonstrate the feasibility of the EBD framework in the protection and renovation of historic districts and heritage buildings.

The demand for rental apartments in Chinese megacities, especially among low-income blue-collar workers, is increasing. Reducing inequity within countries is an emphasis in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and both the government and developers are making efforts to find ways to improve the living quality of blue-collar workers in megacities. Sharing economy, as a way to “destock” non-residential properties, which are then transformed into rental communities, is regarded as a solution to solve the housing shortage and inequity problem. However, in the process of space transformation, residents’ living quality is not often guaranteed. Many “shared communities” are positioned as low-end and do not provide shared platforms beyond shared bathrooms and other basic service spaces. In order to minimize costs, community developers often neglect to ensure a comfortable living environment. This paper discusses typical cases in Shanghai that prioritize speed and quantity over the quality of sharing under the background of the sharing economy. The paper concludes with a discussion of two sides: sharing economy as a solution to provide basic respect and rights, and the contradiction between equity and inequity of living.

In and after times of war the pressure to rebuild as fast as possible is enormous. Research shows that during such pressure, qualities in housing and public spaces that acknowledge symbolic value, including social interactions and different levels of memories, are often overlooked. However, during a war it is not only houses and buildings that are destroyed, but also public and private spaces, places with memories and invisible networks. To (re-)create resilient places, it is essential to look at the different identities of places. This article argues that place-identity is essential in relation to building resilient communities since places can enhance and empower people to adapt and recover from adversity. According to a. o. Jacobs places get meaning by social interactions enabling new connections and experiences, as well as reflecting on and making space for collective and individual memories. In post-war rebuilding a sense of identity, local knowledge, social interaction and past experiences are even more urgent as demonstrated by Bakarat and others. Based on these findings a proposal is done to use the following leading notions in urban planning processes for post-war areas: memory—individual and collective—sense of safety and control and sense of belonging. One cannot just take out one aspect: it is the constant interaction between these three aspects that constitutes the sense of place-identity. As such these notions can be used as a tool in rebuilding practices for new emerging, different identities that are locally embedded, nationally and internationally supported.

Infrastructures permeate all layers of modern society as the underlying structure for everyday life. The unfolding climate crisis and war on the European continent have put infra-structures in the centre of political attention. Infrastructures will also be pivotal to address several SDGs and key targets. Nevertheless, infrastructural artefacts are largely perceived as a necessary evil. This paper explores how infrastructures can be culturally perceived as more than mere technical necessities. Through photographic works by the author, it is asked which aesthetic characteristics are distinctive of infrastructures, and how they can inform a new definition of infrastructures. Based on the photographic method of Bernd and Hilla Becher and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s phenomenological aesthetics, the image itself is considered empirical material with the potential to transform and expand the meaning of the depicted. This paper argues that a phenomenological, embodied perception of infrastructures is important to understand, engage with, and derive meaning from them as structures, places, and networks bridging the divide between everyday life and the often-intangible data of climate change. Based on the photographic works and Giorgio Agamben’s understanding of potentiality, the paper outlines an understanding of infrastructural potentiality and proposes a taxonomy of Nexus, Artery, and Reservoir to conceptualize infrastructures in the fields of architecture and landscape architecture.

The built environment roughly makes up 40% of current carbon emissions. The forty-something figure is familiar to most in and outside the construction industry. Yet, we rarely question the origin of these seemingly unsustainable practices (of building). Practices performed for thousands of years but only recently contributing a climate emergency. As a result, the essay takes a step back to examine the notion of building. The narrative essay is fictional and freely composed from a year’s fieldwork interviewing people who build such as self-builders, architects, contractors, and clients. Inspired by these different voices in building, the essay unpacks building as a cultural practice before passing judgement on its inherent (un)sustainability, spending a brief moment exploring its sustaining abilities and how this may contribute to current notions of built sustainability such as the SDGs. The essay outlines building as a cultural practice of multiple concurring processes, learnings and dependencies that span large-scale political- and legal measures alongside small-scale interpersonal relations. Putting forward a highly responsive and flexible practice, which has prevailed due to just that, and from which it has developed its own informal set of best practices. Best practices that may provide an offset for (re)form(ulat)ing our current discourse on sustainable architecture.

For a long time, the transformation of small mining cities has always been difficult. Hebi, a city in Henan Province, China, is a typical small mining city with a development model of “mining first and then city.” The history of coal mining in Hebi mining area can be traced back to the Eastern Han Dynasty (AD 25–AD 220), and the official establishment of the local mining bureau began in 1957. In the development of more than 60 years, the coal industry has profoundly shaped the spatial structure of the city, and the interactive relationship between the mining area and the urban area is constantly evolving. In this small coal city, the revitalization of declining mining areas needs to properly handle the various factors such as geographical conditions, resource endowments, historical context, capital source, technology support and other factors, and the transformation prospects are full of uncertainties. This paper takes Hebi Mining Area as an example, and attempts to transform the declining coal mines into a tool for regional industrial transformation and economic revitalization through design, and brings more possibilities to the shrinking mining area with a diversified development model. At last, the paper calls for a more efficient paradigm of transformational work for small mining cities which are in distress.

Rwanda has set a clear intention to domesticate the SDGs by integrating them into her national development plans and strategies, especially the umbrella National Strategy for Transformation 2017–2024 and Vision 2050. Rwanda’s Vision 2050 identifies urbanisation as a key driver for economic transformation and urban development. This has further inspired the development of grouped villages, locally known as “imidugudu”, which have been a central part of the government’s Integrated Development Programme (IDP) and the Economic Development & Poverty Reduction Strategy (EDPRS) policy targets. Since 2010 over 60 IDP model villages have been built in Rwanda, inspired by the notion of leave no one behind, and with the aim of resettling vulnerable households living in high-risk areas. Taking the case study of Karama, a model village located in peri-urban Kigali, completed in 2019, a post-occupancy appraisal through direct participant observation and interviews with residents was conducted between 2021 and 2022. Coupled with a critical discourse analysis approach to national policies, the findings emerging from the fieldwork are discussed in relation to SDGs exposing the tension between the overarching discourse and their local grassroots applications. The qualitative data from the post-occupancy interviews is used to discuss SDGs’ potential and relevance in housing. This mapping of global policy framework alongside its local application helps to identify the extent to which context specific projects such as Rwanda’s IDP model villages can provide opportunities for the local implementation of SDGs and in doing so achieving a more resilient future for Rwanda’s communities.

Steamarchitetcure won the first prize in the design competition for Hunan street public station through an open call in late 2020 Shanghai and completed the renovation in January 2022. The article introduces the background, design strategy, and construction process of this project, as well as the architect's experience in the practice process. The author argues that exploring the public benefits and spatial quality of infrastructure is a guaranteed path in urban micro-regeneration projects. The article also presents reflections on the sustainability of the participation of young architect groups in urban micro-regeneration projects.

In the resistance by Ukraine’s citizens to the invasion by Russia, the world has witnessed an extraordinary and heroic example of people power. The scale of destruction is huge, and rebuilding infrastructure, housing, schools, universities, hospitals, public buildings and public space presents an extraordinary challenge—but also an extraordinary opportunity. There have been numerous proposals for how the rebuilding might take place and some international architects have been criticised for imposing an outsider or top-down view. As the first year of the invasion draws to a close, and with no end in sight, Ro3kvit, a collective of Ukraine and international urban planners, architects and educators, have advocated a participatory approach to planning and building reconstruction. Adopting the Ro3kvit position, this paper suggests that old development models as well as the new Law of Ukraine (June 2022) will fall short in helping Ukraine rebuild optimally. The article argues that participatory design and planning processes in the urban planning and housing sector are practical, economic and—given the wide spread citizen engagement in the war—appropriate. The SDGs and concepts of spatial agency provide useful frameworks through which to approach the country’s process of reconstruction. Drawing on engagement theory, including Arnstein’s ladder of citizen participation and Brands circularity, and examples of participatory processes in selected European countries, the paper makes Ro3kvit’s case to the international community as well as to Ukrainian architects, planners, politicians, policy makers and citizens that the Ukrainian citizens must and can be partners in the rebuilding effort, to upgrade the necessary quality of the work, within limits of time and budget.

This research paper considers the Greater Rockaway Community and Shoreline Enhancement Plan as a new paradigm for the community stewardship of a resiliency project focused on addressing the impacts of the climate crisis and economic inequity. While there are many examples of parks and public spaces that are stewarded by local organizations, this plan represents a multi-dimensional effort that is focused on community stewardship, resiliency, education and workforce development opportunities across many land jurisdictions and uses. The plan focuses on local resiliency gained through planting beachgrasses and other plant species along the Atlantic shoreline and dunes in an effort to maintain the dune system that protects the Rockaways from flooding, storm surge, and erosion. This paper will examine the efforts to develop this model, including a literature review of community stewardship models, profiles of the key actors and the ecosystem of organizations that have been required for this endeavor, and the process these organizations have taken to create this new paradigm through a multi-year planning project.

SDG Target 11.1 strives to ensure that everyone has access to adequate, safe, and affordable housing and basic services to upgrade slums. In urban areas, public spaces are essential and should be regarded as a basic service. This study is a case study of a placemaking process along the Mae Kha Canal in Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is situated within low-income informal settlements near the city center, where dwellers live in densely populated areas with no proper public spaces. To achieve resilient communities, architects in the city proposed this co-creation placemaking project, which aims to transform a state-owned gray area into a community garden to provide an inclusive public space and ensure food security for the poor during the COVID-19 pandemic. This paper examines the practical participation framework to explain collaboration among local communities, public administration, and academics in which architects act as facilitators to create the co-design under people-oriented leadership. Best practices, including processes and products, are demonstrated. Finally, the lessons learned and limitations of the project are discussed to improve upon and gain further insight into how the participation model can be applied to transforming a public green space to increase food security in a low-income community and is motivated by local people.

In disaster incidents, local communities are the first to face and get experienced. However, in some cities, the centralization of decision-making and resource management is insufficient in fostering disaster resilience, especially at the community level. Therefore, several gaps indicated a need to increase inclusiveness of local communities into disaster preparedness actions since their local knowledge is essential to generate solutions that help in fostering resilient plans. In this research, a participatory process was designed to involve the Meuntoom community, Chiang Mai Province, Thailand, which is vulnerable to fire risks but having lower levels of public participation in making decisions on resources management. Using Geographical Information System (GIS) mapping as a medium to stimulate meaningful dialogue between local knowledge of the community members and scientific toolset contributing to the results that reveal both vulnerability and capacity which later were integrated into the community’s initiative fire risk reduction plan. The risk reduction detail provides community-based planning and guideline in supportive management system using religious space such as temple as temporary shelters and local resources such as wells which can be improved to mitigate the risk, which was later discussed with the local administrative sector to promote possible implementation and collaboration. The contribution highlighted the significant benefits of the inclusive community in the planning process. Giving suggestion to any community in need of resilience should place a greater emphasis on involving members of the local community in working together as partner to solve the community’s issues.

Cave Urban is a Sydney-based multidisciplinary studio formed by artists, architects, and designers. Their practice explores the intersection of art and architecture by creating large-scale public installations, with an emphasis on community engagement, collaboration, and ecological design. Drawing upon research of vernacular construction, Cave Urban is interested in the construction of lightweight semi-permanent architecture, utilizing the construction process as a mechanism for community engagement and knowledge transfer. Cave Urban prioritizes the use of locally sourced renewable and recycled materials to limit ecological impact and looks to embed a social and cultural legacy through the educational empowerment of those involved. This paper explores Cave Urban’s design and construction methodology in reference to case studies that demonstrate how technical and community collaboration enable the construction of new architectural forms that champion the environment and challenge notions of permanence. It is a process that aims to build social resilience through capacity building and skills development alongside ecological resilience through the local cultivation and use of bamboo as a renewable resource. Drawing upon the lessons learnt within an Australian context, Cave Urban is then able to share these findings with the global community.

Spatial planning policies should be made through negotiation and consensus-building in a process that involves various political, administrative, and technical stakeholders. However, the practice shows that this process can be challenging to organize and navigate, especially under the neoliberal model of spatial governance, which prioritizes economic gains for the privileged few at the expense of balanced and sustainable development. This is precisely the case in Montenegro, a country in the Balkans, where spatial planning is entirely subservient to the interests of commercial developers, with devastating consequences for the environment and the quality of life. When the plans start materializing in the actual built environment and the implications of this planning practice become obvious, communities start organizing, protesting, and demanding better spatial planning policies and more control over spatial governance decision-making processes. This paper showcases several instances where local communities in Montenegro succeeded in subverting the existing spatial planning legislation and achieved their own goals, usually related primarily to preserving public space for public use. The selected case studies illustrate the need for broad public consultation in spatial planning, the power of local organizing, but also the importance of the role the professional practices such as “KANA/Who if not an Architect?” can play in educating the public and helping formulate the well-founded criticism of the neoliberal spatial planning model. Hence, the action research results confirm the importance of local collaboration and public participation in creating inclusive and sustainable cities.

This document analyzes the implementation of a public policy in an informal settlement by working with dwellers as strategic partners for habitat improvement. It examines the case of the Housing Improvement Program implemented in one of the most emblematic informal settlements of Buenos Aires: Barrio Padre Carlos Mugica (former “Villa 31”). Through a participatory approach, it presents the evolution of an eradication model to provide a comprehensive and definitive housing solution in the territory. The process described in the paper was largely influenced by the historical events of the informal settlement. Barrio Mugica is one of the oldest and largest informal settlements in Argentina. Since 2016, the General Directorate of Housing Improvement (Government of the City of Buenos Aires) has been developing a participatory process led by transdisciplinary teams. This process based on a multi-scale approach aims to collect and manage information from social and urban assessments. As a result of data systematization, initiatives can be co-created with families to identify the most appropriate socio-housing solution and enhance the neighborhood’s identity. The document gives examples of how the territorial approach and participation are organized. Currently, the project has achieved more than 3000 interventions on the ground.

The City of Buenos Aires’ Ministry of Culture is the driver of the comprehensive project known as Abasto Barrio Cultural, which views culture and community action as the cornerstone for the transformation of public space. It comes from the recognition of a rich multicultural ecosystem that is distinguished, above all, by the significant presence of Independent Cultural Spaces. Despite not being an official neighborhood, the so-called Barrio de Abasto enjoys the status of a “cultural neighborhood” for both for residents and visitors thanks to the collective and participatory construction derived from its cultural identity. The project proposes an innovative management model in which the state partners with various local culture stakeholders to offer tools intended to enhance cultural activity in the neighborhood and encourage transformations in public space through collaborative strategies. The project’s broad goals are: To foster social ties, creating meeting spaces for the construction of citizenship and collective identities, strengthening democracy. To reinforce links between cultural spaces and citizens, promoting independent cultural offerings. To transform the public space into a cultural stage and platform, establishing the Abasto neighborhood as the District of Independent Culture, ensuring the permanence of local players, and avoiding gentrification. Independent culture was strongly affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic, and the Abasto Barrio Cultural project implemented an open and flexible work methodology offering tools for the sector’s resilience and recovery.

Inclusive urbanization, especially in self-built urban contexts, can drive meaningful change to support safety, resilience, and sustainability. But it often depends on the success of partnerships and knowledge transfer among multiple stakeholders of diverse affiliations and disciplines and within and between communities and social groups. Today’s complex, interrelated, and systemic challenges in urban contexts require new transdisciplinary and people-centered approaches. Conventional, rigid, and silo-ed protocols must be replaced with more organic community-based practices. The latter leads to less controlled, but meaningful outcomes and offers more space for adaptation, social change, and culturally meaningful innovation. In this paper, we offer reflections on an action-oriented and co-production-based methodology aimed at knowledge transfer, analysis, and solution-making with a transdisciplinary (architecture, urban planning, social science, environmental science) and community participatory focus in the context of a self-built neighborhood in Quito, Ecuador. Field research in collaboration with a local community organization and academic partners has yielded a comprehensive social diagnosis and a set of proposals for climate risk prevention and local food production. Results show how challenges in this context are multi-sectoral and interrelated. Sustainable green infrastructure, for example, relies on the regeneration of polluted blue waterways, improved waste management, and collection of clean water. Developing systems for self-managed food orchards offer potential for local fresh produce trade, income generation, and healthier eating habits. The workshop bridged the gap between academic, professional, and community knowledge, building capacity and instigating action, while also challenging our effectiveness due to constraints of timelines, preconceptions, cultural differences, and communication barriers.

The essay reflects on the consequences the realization of absolute sustainability will have on housing tendencies in the global north and suggests addressing this matter by reassessing the distribution of power between the architect and the dweller. As a starting point, the essay will argue for a necessary critical revision of our current overconsuming housing standards if we are to stay within the leeway of an absolute sustainable housing practice. But how are we to achieve this? Are we to follow our instinct as architects to design cleverly thought minimalistic housing? And if so, how do we avoid misconceiving the dwelling as a machine and the dweller as a cog within this machine? To address these questions the essay will adopt the ideas of open building introduced by architect N. John Habraken. By dividing the construction of the structure from the matter of the dwelling, new and sustainable opportunities appear, however, entailing a shift in the power between the dweller and the architect. This is further examined in the Grand Parc social housing transformation in Bordeaux, France—a project resonating in multiple ways with the objectives of open building in both its architectural form and its initial participatory design process. Conclusively, the essay will argue how the idea of open building holds potential as a cradle for developing novel sustainable solutions in housing and, not as a solution itself.

How can we invite children and young people into the design of their everyday environments in a meaningful way? How can we facilitate real collaborative decision-making processes that simultaneously are manageable and produce actual physical built results? Involving children in the design and planning of their everyday environment is a practice that has been explored and experimented with in various setups. Challenges arise when actual design-based decision-making is integrated into a real live building process with its complexities and extensive procedures. They often fall short when translating thoughts and ideas into tangible physical space. Either children’s contributions end up as sketches on a post-it note or the time gap between the design workshop and the completed built space is so extensive that it no longer seems relevant for the involved children and partners. This case study practice review presents a co-design process with a group of children that took place in the social housing estate Hørgården, Copenhagen, during spring of 2021. The paper unpacks our method testing how design decisions can be negotiated and lead to the collective design and construction of three social urban furniture. A key element is to discover if and how children felt a sense of ownership of the process and the outcome. For this, we use field notes and photo documentation along with interviews with stakeholders and children. The topics touched upon in this paper illustrate relationships between the different SDGs and their targets in a concrete community-driven co-design partnership.

Social housing is a contested social good in Denmark, with politicians calling for the opening-up of blighted neighborhoods to improve perceived safety and social resilience. In parallel, there are calls for addressing environmental challenges such as stormwater management, biodiversity enhancement, and long-term stewardship of green spaces. This paper examines the SDGs number 11 and 15 in the case of Hørgården in Copenhagen, Denmark, a not-for-profit housing area located in a state-identified marginalized neighborhood. Hørgården is undergoing significant renovation in response to national and local political goals to implement nature-based solutions (NBS) for climate adaptation and to address negative perceptions of the neighborhood. Unique to this case is the use of community-based engagement in the overall design narratives being used to realize inclusive climate resilience. Architects, social workers, and researchers have worked in tandem to identify site-specific landscape values and integrate resident perspectives into the neighborhood renovation. Results of resident engagement and on-site participatory digital mapping reveal that residents highly value social relations and community cohesion in neighborhood green spaces, even more than they value nature itself. These findings are integrated into the landscape plans for rainwater management, linking technical approaches with designs for spaces that support community-based social values and biodiversity. The case study of Hørgården highlights the potential for centering relational values in NBS. It also illustrates the value of leveraging social, ecological, and technological processes in tandem to meet the challenges of providing just and inclusive pathways for urban climate resilience.

This paper explores questions around people as partners with a point of departure in the Danish ecovillage Karise Permatopia, which in recent years has worked towards becoming a self-sustaining community based on the principles of permaculture. Karise Permatopia is a living community as well as a working and social community with a sociocratic approach. Our aim is to identify how a novel kind of local society with participatory processes and a community-driven organization can contribute to sustainable living and climate change mitigation. We will do so in three parts relating to Karise Permatopia’s governance system, location and dwellings. Our thesis is that the ecovillage can be seen as a community that radically aims at changing the way we usually consider sustainable actions in everyday life and society at large. With a critical analysis and discussion of this community, it is our ambition to identify principles that are scalable, replicable and adaptable in a broader development of future sustainable habitats.

The Systemic Approach to Architectural Performance (SAAP) looks at an ecosystem as a more-than-human community and searches for its synergy. It integrates Systems Oriented Design (SOD) and its tool gigamapping methodology for multi-stakeholders and multidisciplinary cocreation amongst humans, a ‘real-life codesign laboratory’ with more-than-human stakeholders and reflection. These appear in feedback loops. SAAP focuses on more-than-human edible and habitable landscapes in urban environments and their social and generative agendas. Therefore, it is using tools such as prototypical urban interventions such as insect hotels, their DIY recipes and mobile applications to introduce a more-than-human economy, bridging the interventions, their DIY recipes and more-than-human social engagement. Therefore, a community member can be paid for reproducing a DIY recipe of an insect hotel, as well as the insect can be paid for its ecosystemic performance, such as pollination. Artificial intelligence is being used to recognise such performance for associating value. This should generate resilient communities of Post-Anthropocene where humans and nonhumans coperform in synergy. We are all dependent on the overall ecosystem. However, recent economic models and our urban environments do not reflect it. Therefore, we are facing Anthropocene Extinction which is, of course, also destructive to humans. This paper mainly reflects on an ongoing project COLife.

As information and communication technology (ICT) has become widely available, user-friendly innovations such as open-source software and, mobile applications have rapidly reframed the ways we share, collect, produce, and manage information in all spheres of our network society. In Brazil, emerging digital tools and new media have gained increasing recognition among urban professionals to devise urban planning and management for the more efficient use of public resources. Similarly, grassroots organizations have realized the power of digital features to actively engage citizens as well as to highlight spatial inequalities as a way to advocate social changes by exposing communities’ needs and raising the voices of those who historically haven’t been heard. While this potentially changes the narratives of people living in marginalized communities and strengthens local networks, it is not clear yet whether better access to technology has necessarily translated into more effective citizen participation and democratic processes, especially in urban vulnerable contexts. Drawing from a decolonizing approach to social theories and planning, this study focuses on interrogating the dilemmas of digital technology development and electronic participation through a Latin American perspective.

City Information Modelling (CIM) is a new approach which merges existing digital technologies for urban and building management. Its application is still in its infancy, as well as its potential has been not yet fully exploited. This paper presents some preliminary findings from a novel application of CIM to a pilot case study providing fresh insights on how CIM technologies can be applied in urban areas where inconsistency of data may challenge the implementation of digital technologies. The novelty of the method stems from a mixed methodology, which integrates knowledge and technical expertise on CIM and social science thus providing a basis for building community resilience. The case of Al Baqa’ has been chosen, as paradigmatic example of a challenging urban context, as it was originally a Palestinian refugees’ camp, and evolved over time into a dense development of mainly two-story concrete buildings. High population density in the area impacts on the environment in terms of pollution, shortage of services, water sewage efficiency, and waste management. Refugees have been living in Al Baqa’a since 1967 facing daily challenges from different angles: political, because of the precarious acknowledgement of their rights as citizens; economic, for the settlement offers limited opportunities to grow; physical, as Baqa’a residents are plagued by a variety of issues, including underperforming water sewage system, lack of ventilation and daylight in the houses, poor waste management. In such context, the pilot project aims at developing a CIM prototype, merging in one platform a variety of data, including mapping of the water sewage system, 3D views of the buildings, and qualitative data collected from residents, in an attempt to combine data from different sources and actors and explore the potential of CIM in overcoming one of the major environmental challenges, e.g. water management. Further studies may apply the same methodology to different contexts and or different sectors, thus allowing for a better understanding of potential benefits of CIM in terms of enhanced community resilience.

Refugee camps are defined by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) as “temporary facilities built to provide immediate protection and assistance to people who have been forced to flee their homes due to war, persecution, or violence”. The average lifespan of a refugee camp is seventeen years after which they organically transition into new towns. This is evident in Jordan, the country housing the majority of refugees since 1947. Daily practices by refugees subvert the initial planned camp into organic formations suitable for their changing needs, overriding the rigid built environment which no longer serves them. Addressing SDGs number 10: Reduced Inequalities, 11: Sustainable Cities and Communities, and 17: Partnerships of change, this ongoing research assesses the potential of artificial intelligence models to identify morphological patterns in the built environment and understand transient scenarios of a refugee camp’s spatial organization through an iterative process. By understanding patterns of spatial change, the inevitable transition from temporary to permanent settlement can be guided away from “slummification” towards creating adequate low-income housing for refugees in Jordan.

How do you support and nurture youth in the world’s largest refugee settlement? While the initial focus for aid organisations is to provide safety, shelter, sustenance, health care, and education, boredom among refugee youth is a persistent challenge in the years to resettlement and therefore providing creative outlets is vital. The Bidi Bidi Music and Arts Centre is intended to answer this challenge, alleviating pervasive boredom while providing necessary cultural infrastructure and programs, as well as supporting the building of community, easing tensions between rival groups, and helping overcome post-traumatic stress disorder, which is rife in many refugee communities. The centre will comprise a recording studio, spaces for music training, and a sheltered performance venue which doubles as a community meeting space. To.org and Hassell in collaboration with LocalWorks and Arup have created a sheltered, open-air amphitheatre, built from compressed earth blocks crafted from material excavated on the site. Currently under construction, the centre will also include community toilets, a tree nursery, vegetable garden, and freshwater facilities.

Environmental imageability and legibility is a fundamental component of urban design and relates to how successful citizens navigate the urban environment. In the digital era, the presence of digital navigation-based ICT opens advanced and innovative ways to give directions and traffic information to drivers. Navigation systems such as Google Maps make moving and steering in the city effortless and unwinding, and it also intervenes in the spatial cognition process of the inhabitants. This paper aims to reveal the impact of the digital navigation system on citizens’ mental image of their urban environment by comparing the spatial information that people perceive when they move through urban spaces with or without the intervention of a digital navigation system. The research method used is experimental research with a field trip tactic using a motorcycle and visual experience and narrative interpretation recording to identify urban space elements in Surabaya city. The next step is doing an in-depth interview to reveal the participants’ spatial cognition experiences, which are then compared to the identified urban and architectural elements from the digital recording. The research technique is data triangulation analysis supported by literature reviews and other secondary data. The results showed that the dominant urban elements involved in the spatial cognition process were objects with different scale characteristics, unique shapes, and interactive features. Additionally, the results propose a concept of a comprehensive legible city from the user’s perspective of the digital navigation system and encourage action on SDGs goal 11, sustainable cities and communities.

Resilient inclusive cities need evacuation plans for tourists, especially when considering the recent increase in severe disasters due to climate change. The purpose of this study is to clarify and to discuss one of the policies for disaster prevention that tourism centers face, the evacuation of overnight tourists in the event of sudden flooding in a historic district with low-rise wooden guesthouses (hereafter, the guesthouses). The study area is the historic district of Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is currently listed on the World Heritage Tentative List. The study uses agent-based simulations. Furthermore, this study selected the Chiang Mai Culture and Arts Center (hereafter, the Arts Center) as the public facility designated for temporary evacuation because it is located in the center of the area and is well known by tourists. The study simulates the evacuation possibility from tourist accommodations to the temporary shelter. The results revealed that the temporary shelter cannot accommodate tourists from all tourist accommodations, such as large hotels in the historic center, but can manage those from all of the guesthouses. The case study could show the possibility of using the public facility as a temporary evacuation shelter for overnight tourists staying in the guesthouses in the historic center that are vulnerable to flooding. Additionally, this study notes that the planned location of guesthouse construction is an important consideration within the tourist cities.

Access to decent and resilient post-disaster housing for all that responds to the social, cultural, and environmental needs of the occupant in the wake of increasing disaster risk is a key to achieving sustainable development goals. It is an emerging field of research that aims to place post-disaster resettlement within the purview of sustainable development goals especially to integrate SDGs 7, 11, and 13. This study aimed to highlight the importance of socio-cultural and environmental dimensions focusing on thermal performance for a post-disaster resettlement housing construction to become successful. A mixed method was used to evaluate the comparative advantage of social, cultural, and environmental aspects of vernacular buildings of old settlement over prototype construction in the relocation site of “Panipokhari Integrated Settlement”, developed for the relocation of a vulnerable indigenous “Thami” community in Bhimeshwor Municipality, one of the worst affected hilly towns of Dolakha district of Nepal. Structure questionnaire surveys, interviews, and thermal simulation were used as methods for data collection and analysis. The study found that although having structural and other disadvantages, vernacular buildings can inform the post-disaster resettlement housing construction to become socially usable and culturally adaptable and also thermally comfortable. The use of vernacular materials in the prototype building would have significantly reduced total discomfort hours by 35% and the overall energy load in the building by 76.37%. The study concludes that the integration of socio-cultural and environmental dimensions in housing reconstruction has a huge potential to contribute to meeting the sustainable development goal in post-disaster resettlement programs.

Since 2000, there has been a general phenomenon of continuous urban contraction in Northeast China, and the trend is becoming increasingly evident. The social-ecological system of shrinking towns is facing more risks and challenges. This study takes the typical shrinking town in Northeast China—Xinlin District as an example using the resilience research framework. The data used in the study is from the statistical yearbook from 2012 to 2016, which has significantly shrunk. Moreover, it uses the DPSIR model to build an evaluation system to evaluate its social-ecological system resilience, then reveals the mechanism of urban resilience change. The paper also conducts a coupling and coordination analysis on the social-ecological system resilience and shrinkage, dividing the town into different development stages. Then reveals the gap between each stage and the smart shrinkage, which should be coordinated development, and analyzes the reasons to provide a reference for the sustainable development of Northeast China. The results showed that: (1) The resilience and coordinated development of the social-ecological system in the Xinlin District showed a trend of first increasing and then decreasing. (2) The Xinlin District has excellent development potential in carbon exchange, eco-tourism, and green food industries, which can be industrial support for its smart shrinkage. (3) To achieve coordinated development as soon as possible, Xinlin District still needs external funds and policy support to activate its endogenous power.

In order to be carbon–neutral by 2050, Germany has launched numerous regulations to decarbonize in all sectors. Especially in the rural area, the government requires a reduction in productive farming and fadeout of livestock husbandry. The paper focuses on the rural area in Brandenburg. Due to the profit-seeking behaviour of farmers, farmlands in that area are sold to energy companies for renewable energy production and huge energy infrastructures. When the original nature landscape replaced by endless solar panels and wind turbines, the residents have to eventually abandon the traditional agricultural lifestyles, leading to the gradually disappear of the rural identity. By analysing the actor networks, the paper defines the current dilemma as the spatial conflict between the land for energy infrastructure and the retention of rural agricultural production in the post energy transition era. Consequently, a new vision of sharing energy farm should have a say in the future. By integrating the three phases of energy supply—production, storage, and transmission—with different aspects of rural production and living, the design achieves three kinds of sharing: sharing of energy and agricultural production, sharing flow of energy distribution and use, and sharing of land for energy facilities with public activity spaces. In conclusion, energy transition shouldn’t mean a subversion of the past, but instead, a process of recalling common identity. This paper is subsidized by NSFC project which is named as <Research on Time and Space Elements and Expression System of “Sharing Architecture”>, No. 51978468.

The enhancement of inclusive participation of local communities in sustainable land-use efficiency is an important target to achieve as one of the SDG11.3.1. As consequence, urban designers have been transforming their positions into facilitators using scientific information as the catalyst for debate, negotiation, and collaboration with local citizens to evaluate the impact of design plan on the final decision. And as the time of physical distancing measure has led a sudden shift towards online platforms, giving people considerably more access to information. In turn a mutual platform is required to include ideas and perspectives as much as wider range of stakeholders. This paper demonstrated the use of Internet-based information as a platform for bringing people and organizations together to generate urban data, as well as 3D city modelling as a visual tool that can help researchers collaborate on a common goal of providing high-quality data for efficient decision-making. Using the database retrieving from our previous study on the effects of building height regulations on Chiang Mai’s historic landscape as an example of scientific support for practical policies and the accessibility of communication tools via digital devices to aid discussion, negotiation, and regulatory application in the sustainable use of natural resources as cultural heritage. After all paving the way to the accessible digitized urban data while fulfilling the need for equitability of communities to debate their own vision and direction of community design especially in the city where the complexity of land-use efficacy and urban development.

This study examines the currently available literature on infrastructure assessment tools and the impact of climate change on its maintenance costs. Critical infrastructure (CI) performance and protection is a global priority. Many countries struggle to ensure the functioning of their infrastructure during or after extreme events. Furthermore, climate change (CC) projections suggest that future events might be of higher magnitudes. When considering the life-cycle of infrastructure, one of the most important aspects to consider is risk. Risk is first identified and then addressed during CI design, construction, and subsequent maintenance. Many studies have taken the approach of applying cost–benefit analysis (CBA) to their research in order to estimate the impact of future climate. The objective of CBA is to find, from an economic standpoint, the best strategy to mitigate climate change by reducing the costs of preparedness and mitigation actions for CC. In conclusion, the framework aims for better decision making in both the short-term and the long-term.

The aim of this research is to raise for discussion the reuse of vacant or abandoned urban buildings as a solution to the problem of social housing in large cities, in which high-cost projects, in terms of materials and maintenance, are usually designed and implemented. By applying their skills to vacant buildings, design professionals, educators and researchers worldwide can contribute to solving the ubiquitous housing shortage problem. The focus of this research is Athens, the capital of Greece, where there is an urgent need for housing and therefore for design of residential buildings, resulting to the property price constant rising. Access to safe, decent, affordable and sustainable housing conditions, which is a fundamental human right recognized by the United Nations in the 17 UN SDGs, has been adopted not only in Athens, but also throughout Greece. Moreover, after several records, the vacant or abandoned urban building stock status in Athens, especially small properties, is considered to be large enough that the idea of reusing empty or abandoned buildings as residential domiciles would prove to be an optimal solution. Therefore, the reconstructions of vacant or abandoned urban buildings in Athens by professional urban planners, through integrated plans of urban interventions in the building stock (private and public), would contribute not only to the infrastructure and service development but also to the improvement and sustainable environmental upgrading of the public space.

For the past decade, Hong Kong has been the most expensive city in the world to own a home. The laissez-faire housing market and demand for affordable housing create extreme living conditions for low-income families. A shortage of public housing units leads these households to rent in the private market, with subdivided units (SDUs) appearing in the city. SDUs are formed internally in existing buildings and are typically invisible from the street. These minimal dwellings are usually cramped and overcrowded, with families often living in a unit with less than 15 m2. Located in this context, a not-for-profit architectural practice, Domat works with social workers and volunteers to improve the spatial conditions for the low-income families, proposing better study environments for children with the aim to develop long-term prospects for the families. “Modular furniture” was introduced as a spatial tool to bring organisation and relief to families and their homes. The approach respects the belongings of the families as the basis of their home with a minimal touch to the fabric of the house, allowing the households to be the direct beneficiary. The projects addressed multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) including no poverty (SDG 1), good health and well-being (SDG 3) quality education (SDG 4), reduced inequalities (SDG 10), sustainable cities and communities (SDG 11), responsible consumption and production (SDG 12), and partnership for the goal (SDG 17). Positive feedback from the families supports the modification method and validates the importance of designers’ participation in these low-income contexts.

How can a society become resilient with members that cannot even fulfill their basic needs such as housing? In this manner, the term housing does not only represent sheltering which means that houses should be designed not only for being enclosed spaces but also should be well-equipped, well-designed, and well-constructed in a manner of responding to users’ necessities in many aspects. The foundation of a resilient community can be ensured by contemplated house design with the participation of concerned public and private authorities. Even the efforts to build affordable social housing projects in many countries by various governmental initiatives most of them failed because of discounting each specific needs of communities. As there are diverse communities all around the world, there is hard to apply one model for housing for all. However, social housing production is always continued its presence as a fast and cheapest way of constructing affordable housing units. At that stage, the question arises of that is it possible to build mass housing units through vernacular. Since vernacular houses have been produced for centuries by several societies in different parts of the world in various ways, by using the lifestyles, cultures, construction methods, and labor specific to the region, in line with local data. However, there is no vernacular housing design criteria guide is compiled from vernacular housing examples all around the world. While on one hand, this paper aims to present a vernacular housing design guide that can be used, applied, and adapted for many regions. Also, on the other hand as a developing country, takes Turkey which can be counted as a non-resilient community, is a case study. For, it is apparent that the prosperity of the country is badly affected by global disasters such as climate change, global pandemics, and political upheavals all around the world. Therefore, examining closely Turkey’s vernacular social housing actions and searching for considered vernacular housing design criteria by architects and analyzing the outcomes can lead and contribute new paths to achieving UN Sustainable Development Goals.

This paper discusses using housing density infill as a strategy for equality. With an estimated population of nearly 12 million people, Sao Paulo, located in southwest Brazil, is one of the urban scenarios that exemplify the accelerated urbanization experienced in Latin American cities in the 1950s and 1960s. This condition helped shape cities where segregation and juxtaposition act not as opposite poles but as phenomena that entangles themselves in any space deemed urban. Paulista Avenue, one of the most iconic places in São Paulo, served as the ground for undergraduate architecture students to develop possibilities of urban density as a new ground for housing. The infill is usually seen as an empty area; however, in this vertical architecture and urban design studio, the infill was the site. The hypotheses were: if existent density and context are the hard edges of the current urban scenarios, how is the infill appropriated toward a healthy and more equitable future for cities? How can new urbanities develop on top of one another through commonality without neglecting each other or its inhabitants? The project methodology focused on theoretical and speculative phases. First, the students had a research seminar exploring relevant concepts situated at the base of the studio’s design philosophy, such as enablement, flexibility, open building, and self-help. Second, these elements of participation applied to housing production helped establish the stance of their projects related to density and user participation. Provocative housing scenarios surrounded by public space and contrasting cultures were developed in the study, targeting the United Nations New Urban Agenda (UNITED NATION (2017) New Urban Agenda. English) and Sustainable Development Goals as a contribution to how contemporary citizen architects enhance the resilience of cities through architecture. By positioning density as a pathway toward housing equality, design becomes more than an attribute; it becomes an active verb. Thus, housing becomes more than a shortage; it becomes the city’s embodiment of democracy.

This paper is based on a study for New European Bauhaus that should support local decision-makers in providing internally displaced people (IDP) and other vulnerable groups in Ukraine with good homes. It suggests five categories of housing: shelter, emergency housing, urgency housing, accelerated housing, and standard housing, which could become a basis for the development of a coherent system which could meet the needs of all groups of society in the current situation and the following decades. Housing provision has been one of the most urgent questions since the first days after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The scale of migration could be illustrated by the numbers: 6.9 million internally displaced persons, 6 million returnees, and 7.4 million refugees after a half year of war. Since Ukraine has a strong civil society, self-organised initiatives were the first to respond to the crisis and created new patterns of housing provision. However, some of the official decisions were taken to solve immediate problems without considering the wider context, but rather following the pre-war principles of market-driven urban development. Housing privatisation that started in Ukraine in 1992 after the collapse of the Soviet Union was conducted through transferring housing units to citizen ownership free of charge. As for now, approximately 95 per cent of the housing stock is in private ownership. This situation led to the creation of a certain culture of housing development, management, and “consumption”. It has been described as “super-homeownership”. In current circumstances, it is crucial to put the needs of displaced people and increasing in amount other vulnerable groups of society in the centre of the housing agenda, that would “leave no one behind”. Based on existing and emerging typologies of housing, we are trying to articulate a new housing system that would contain alternative approaches, models, and typologies. Rethinking them and their co-relation would make it possible to respond to the housing need in different circumstances. It could also be taken as a reference for other crisis regions today or in the future which are affected by war (like in Ukraine) and/or natural disasters (like in Turkey or Syria).

Resilience in the built environment is directly linked to the concepts of sustainability, vulnerability and adaptive capacity. In this work, resilience is considered the ability of the environment to adapt to incident impacts over time. Therefore, it is a fundamental feature to raise the quality of social housing (SH). Evaluating the factors that constitute resilience in the built environment in SH with a focus on the housing unit is one of the objectives of the research described here. It is also intended to identify the main design attributes that give resilience to SH in the Brazilian context. This article presents part of the research demonstrating, through a Case Study in Uberlândia, the development of the Resilient House Assessment Matrix (RHAM) and the Resilience Ruler (RR). The ruler’s indicators point to physical elements or social practices considered important that allow housing and its users to defend themselves against impacts, making them more resilient. The results contribute to global recommendations aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals 11.

The plight of the floating or homeless population of Dhaka city prompted this study to comprehend the need for safe shelters by analyzing the lifestyle of the floating population who sleep in public areas such as bus stands, local bazaars or in the streets of the capital and thus propose plausible design solutions for sustainable and temporary accommodations for the night sleep. Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated countries in the world with a staggering growth in urban population and with a significant fraction of the population living in the capital alone. There has been an inevitable scarcity of proper accommodation for the people living under the poverty line thus forcing them into homelessness. Addressing this infrastructural negligence has become imperative because this has allowed circumstances of sexual abuse, authoritative harassment, environmental detriment as well as human trafficking. This research has commenced through a methodical survey based on the socio-demographic variables of the concerned pavement dwellers, and finally, conceptual models have been proposed based on different context of specific case studies. In summary, this research aims to recognize and rectify the issues presented by the lack of marginal living arrangements of the urban homeless by offering sustainable and safe ideas for temporary shelter designs reflecting their collective circumstances.

Informal housing and settlements are produced by spatial and social inequalities, increasing vulnerability, and risk for communities. In recent years, community resilience perspectives in architecture and urbanism have highlighted the idea of transformative adaptation where communities are able to restore their built environment, and to transform it based on their needs and desires. However, little has been explored and compared about whether and how informal housing influence local community resilience strategies and adaptations to disturbances and challenges. To compare how informal and precarious housing in different topographic contexts influenced community resilience, this research examines three case studies from the Americas (Peru, Uruguay, and Southern US). Methods included semi-structured interviews, architectural documentation, and analyses of secondary data. This study reveals informal housing characteristics and its underlying processes in different geographical and cultural contexts were critical for communities to address local challenges. Findings aim to provide lessons to architects, planners, and policy makers, about how community-based initiatives can enable communities to adapt to stresses while contemplating the complexities that informal housing often entail.

Cities are growing enormously globally, witnessing the technological changes and absorbing the migrating populations. People choose cities in aspiration of better life and livelihoods. Urban communities are more vulnerable to natural hazards especially the urban poor. In this study we assess the residential buildings of 400 households of different income groups in Pune city, of Maharashtra State of India. Various design and planning parameters are selected to understand the resilience of the household to prevent and mitigate the risks of natural hazards, earthquakes and floods. A questionnaire survey was conducted to understand the perception of the household. The results were evaluated with the data from field visits and key stakeholders interviews. The study reveals, in the low income communities, the planning and design aspect of the buildings is of least priority. The study further reveals most of the household wherein the design and planning elements are compromised are vulnerable to the impacts of natural hazards. The study concludes architecture thus is a key to prevent and mitigate the risks and enhance resilience to natural hazards.

Bounded by the sea and the harbour, one of the earliest settlement areas at Durban on the east coast of South Africa should be a sort after residential and commercial area and a tourist attraction. Known as the Point, forced removals in terms of apartheid legislation, a downturn in the economy and perceived crime have resulted in the heritage and other buildings being abandoned and becoming derelict. Foreign nationals living there are also the victims of xenophobia. The impact of recent floods has led to the harbour collecting waste, mostly washed down through an underground canal. Town Planning incentives introduced by the municipality to encourage the Point’s redevelopment, both new and the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings have been partly successful. An ambitious plan for luxury high-rise towers at the edge of the promenade has not gained traction as people in that economic bracket are intimidated by the levels of crime in accessing the area, preferring to live elsewhere. The Historic Urban Landscapes approach enables the mapping of resources, intangible heritage and accommodates change. This and circular economic theories used successfully in other historic port cities in the adaptive reuse of heritage buildings creating affordable housing, access to green space and easy transport links to the city centre could establish a resilient community with the buy in of residents and local government.

Previous work has studied the potential contribution of design and new buildings to sustainable development, underscoring how good design practices can support the attainment of some of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). However, very little research examines how built heritage can help in achieving the SDGs and its role in maintaining and augmenting community resilience and economic productivity. One of Cairo’s most important heritage neighborhoods is El-Korba (Heliopolis), famous for its social, cultural, and historical relevance. Many researchers have studied this area architecturally, historically, and socially, but little research examines how this location’s historic characteristics contribute to local sustainable development. This study examines through a visual journey how the social interactions and street-level activities promoted by heritage facades contribute to the SDGs. Building on previous research, the researchers provide some insight into how specific activities support the achievement of several SDGs. The findings highlight that the heritage facades and unique features serve to accelerate sustainable development—on the social, economic, and environmental levels by supporting local, commercial, and social activities. The proposed insights from this research could enable future researchers to assess the built heritage and its contribution to local resilience and sustainability in other heritage sites worldwide.

In the process of rapid urbanization, Shenzhen has witnessed a surge in high-rise communities. But most of high-rise communities were built on principle of ‘practicality,’ which lays great emphasis on high efficiency of land use, large indoor space, and convenient living facilities but overlooks the public place, thus resulting in low-quality living environment without social interaction and ecological availability. In contrast, high-rise communities in Singapore emphasizes ‘ecology’ and ‘sharing,’ which integrates ecological landscape with sharing space to create more opportunities for residents’ interaction. The practice of ecology-sharing high rise in Singapore provides a good example for Shenzhen. On this paper, a comparative study was conducted between Singapore and Shenzhen in five aspects: (1) Climate, (2) Strategies, (3) Funds, (4) Housing Policies, and (5) Maintenance, in an attempt to figure out why ecology-sharing high-rise communities can be successfully practiced in Singapore. Based on the result of comparative study, author tries to make some suggestions on how high-rise communities in Shenzhen combine the ecology-sharing mode with its own characteristic to create a more resilient and livable environment for residents.

As urbanisation accelerates, an increasing number of young people are flocking to major cities, resulting in a large group of renters. To alleviate the burden of living on young people and reduce high rents, the Chinese government implemented a new policy in 2021 to encourage the construction of subsidised housing, granting people equal access to the right to the city. However, current subsidised housing aims to meet the basic needs of tenants and frequently has issues such as poor environment and inadequate functions, lowering the residents’ quality of life. This paper will design a waterfront youth-subsidised housing community on the north bank of Punan Canal in Shanghai’s Fengxian District. Through sharing architecture, affordable, healthy and sustainable subsidised housing communities are created to ensure equitable access to the opportunities and resources of urban living. The design strategies for the youth-subsidised housing community are summarised through the design: 1. Compress near businesses to shorten commute times. 2. Open up the community to foster a stronger connection to and contribution to the city. 3. Consolidate indoor spaces to save money on rent. 4. Make flexible use of indoor and outdoor sharing spaces and sharing functions to improve quality of life. 5. Enrich the house types to give residents more options. 6. Inconvenience to encourage resident turnover and provide more people with equitable access to city resources.

The recent controversial project of “Neom—The Line” has brought the concept of three-dimensional linear city (3DLC) back to public attention. This urban development model offers exceptional potential for the attaining of sustainable development goals (SDGs), but this potential is only partially realized in these projects. The 3DLC model was originally conceived by the Radical avant-gardes and developed in an ecological direction by master architects Paolo Soleri and Luigi Pellegrin. To achieve SDGs through this model, it is necessary to select proper locations and to involve an open relationship with the physical and social context. If we could make this relationship a really permeable one, we would achieve both a lower ecological footprint and a more inclusive, incremental and shared sociality. We would thereby restore resilient communities’ power over their settlement choices, while equipping them with infrastructures guaranteeing the right to equal access to urban benefits. The urban development model I propose here was created and tested over more than 20 years of research and hands-on workshops, whose participants put themselves in the shoes of a community intending to fashion its own habitat, in order to test the potential of a participatory approach. Striving to meet the requirements of the New Urban Agenda (NUA), I therefore propose a 3DLC to be developed through and between cities along existing railways. It is a provocative proposal: not a specific, fixed project, but a strategic masterplan at a worldwide scale. It is a solution that is at once material and immaterial, as well as open, incremental and shared. It acts as an infrastructure for a new mindset, that of “hypersustainable civilization”. Its purpose is to offer every community fair opportunities while maintaining individuality and resilience.

This paper investigates the modernist example of Indian LIC housing by architect B. V. Doshi, which developed in the early seventies as an experiment in incrementalism. The pragmatic project was conceived as amorphous dwellings that catered to the aspirations, challenges, and growth of the resident family, a topic that has recently re-emerged. The combination of three different types of dwellings (focusing on individuals as well as family life) illustrates the diversity of the current community, which was strengthened by this architectural approach—a continuous dialogue necessary for accommodating numerous alterations to the original design. Multiple interpretations of the identical spaces through users’ perspectives make it a work in movement. This paper addresses what we can learn from those interventions for future housing projects. What architectural tools kept this housing ensemble alive without losing its modernist aspiration? The first part of the paper gives a historical and geographical contextualisation of the site and the architect. Next, the alterations that took place over time are mapped (in detail) and supported via drawings. Later, more possible adaptations are explored graphically via (fictional) social scenarios. In conclusion, the idea of the house as a concentric metabolic system of addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division is introduced, in which the role of the architect versus the importance of vernacular adaptations is stressed. The methodology is based on a literature review, interviews, questionnaires, archival research, and research by design.

Pedagogies in architectural education have recently received a great deal of criticism on the relevance of the curriculum to the lives of the students and to the issues of our era, and its impact on both students and the profession. Many have called for the urgency to reinvent the discipline of Architecture, resolve the crisis of its identity, and transform the curriculum in higher education in order to enable interdisciplinary, equality, inclusion, resilience, the capacity for critical thinking and therefore the skills to engage with and shape the field itself. This paper looks at interdisciplinary teaching through the lens of the trans-African dialogues (TADs) approach, which first takes the shape of a module introduced as an elective course for architecture students at the German University in Cairo (GUC), and second, explores relevant and meaningful ways in which this approach may be adapted to other regions of Africa, specifically the renowned Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST) in Ghana. The TADs approach engages with the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, notably SDG4, SDG11, and SDG17 directly. It provides a platform for collaboration and the sharing of empirical knowledge on innovation, entrepreneurship and issues of sustainability, inclusion, cultural identity, authenticity and technology, through the lens of human settlements in Africa. TADs’ study reveals the students’ increased awareness and profound grasp of the built environment principles through an interdisciplinary lens. It provides a conceptual framework for future architectural education.

This paper presents ‘From the Heart,’ a Masters of Architecture Studio at the University of Sydney School of Architecture, Design and Planning that explores the pedagogical interactions between the Australian First Nations ontological realm of Country, the Uluru Statement From The Heart and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The content below will interrogate the Subject Matter as Knowing and the Pedagogical Approach as Tools as a reflection of the scalable or prototypical phenomena of Indigenous methodologies in the Studio learning environment. Enacting knowing with tools provokes evolving practicing frameworks to reflexively critique the viability of SDG’s through less visible methodologies and worldviews in an academic setting.

International student collaboration combined with service-learning holds several logistical and practical challenges in student curricula. Yet, success can be achieved using innovative teaching and learning methodologies in order to support sustainable development goals (SDGs) such as Quality Education, Sustainable Cities and Communities (11), Gender Equality (5), and Partnerships for the Goals (17). This paper presents a case study of an international student collaboration that resulted in a collaborative body of research focusing on temporal litema mural decoration artists in rural parts of the eastern Free State Province, South Africa. Using the Collaborative Online International Learning (COIL) method, this collaboration demonstrates how students and community members can share in a meaningful cross-cultural exchange that celebrates art and promotes local agency. Little is known about the perceptions of students and community participants during community engagement combined with COIL. In order to explore such perceptions, this case study combined service-learning activities (Stage One) by South African architecture students at the University of the Free State, which were shared with American art history students from Colorado State University through a COIL (Stage Two) that resulted in a collaborative exhibition of research findings (Stage Three). This combination of community engagement on, COIL, and an exhibition provides an example of curriculum transformation. This approach falls under the UN’s (1) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of quality education and gender equality and (2) the “Art-Lab for Human Rights and Dialogue” that intervenes ethically for human rights.

The paper presents the process underpinning the development of a framework for architectural teaching and learning aimed to facilitating the implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) in architectural teaching, with particular focus on design courses. It aims to offer a methodology of evaluation and self-assessment for architecture educators in higher education institutions. This study has been conducted in accordance with the principles set out at the international level by UNESCO and at a European level by the Green Deal and the New European Bauhaus initiative. The theoretical apparatus presented herewith in has been (and continues to be), formalised based on the experience gained teaching the course “Sustainability and the Built Environment” at the Politecnico di Milano (Mantua Campus) since 2018. The course has provided the academic framework to experiment with a multi-system approach to Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The feedback collected and the results obtained have enabled the identification of three different perspectives to be considered when setting up a teaching programme, namely: the relationship between the teaching institution, the educators, and the students; the relationship between the students and their own agency within the learning context; and the teaching content. The general principles deduced from this experience, which is still ongoing, are transferable beyond the outlined disciplinary limits and are intended to provide students with valuable alternative perspectives to approach vital an ecological transition.

The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) were adopted by the United Nations (UN) in 2015 as a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that by 2030 all people enjoy peace and prosperity. Since its announcement, the SDGs have attracted significant interest from various disciplines and sectors globally. Partnerships from the private and public sectors have been established to play a role in this challenging and ambitious plan. However, organizational institutions in architectural practice and education in Turkey have not yet been sufficiently interested in the SDGs. This gap in architectural education in Turkey constitutes the study’s primary motivation and defines this paper’s main problem area. In order to close this gap in literature and architecture education, the paper aims to present a projection of how the Turkish architectural education system can be integrated with the SDGs. Accordingly, the main research question that the paper intends to answer is: If and how schools of architecture in Turkey deal with SDGs within their curriculum and educational system? The study process included in-depth interviews with the administrators/chairpersons of schools of architecture having been granted accreditation by MIAK (the national accreditation board for schools of architecture in Turkey) and a thorough analysis of graduation projects submitted to Archprix Turkey. Following this, the study clarifies the situation regarding SDGs’ involvement in curricula at different levels and proposes a Turkey-specific SDG-Architecture education integration framework in light of these ideas.

This paper highlights the new forms of pedagogy that can be identified through advanced dynamic and interactive collaboration, showing how agency gives designers the awareness of independence to improve their skills and the desire to contribute to better designs within urban spaces. The Method Design—Responsive Teaching Framework is presented in this paper as an educational approach that focuses on empowering individuals and communities to take an active role in shaping their environments through agency. The framework emphasizes the importance of self-regulation, autonomy, choices, and collectivity in urban design and planning, and how these concepts affect the aspect of collectivity and representation. As an example, the Urban Prototype design studio is used to illustrate how the framework is applied in practice. The studio is a hands-on, immersive learning experience that equips students with the skills and knowledge to develop sustainable solutions for twenty-first century cities, using the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a model for agency-based urban design. Through the framework, students learn to use advanced dynamic and interactive collaboration to develop solutions that consider the needs of the community while preserving the environment. This approach allows students to apply their solutions in real-world settings and become effective urban designers. Additionally, the framework emphasizes the importance of localizing the SDGs, utilizing interdisciplinary approaches and incorporating design education for resilient communities to better prepare future professionals for addressing the challenges of contemporary urbanization and climate change.

The UN SDG framework is comprehensive, offering many themes to explore concerning global sustainability to showcase the scale and complexity of challenges we face. As a tool, they can bring research and education together and aid the co-creation of knowledge between staff and students to raise awareness of sustainability issues. However, to develop a paradigm shift in architectural education, they need support to better showcase their value to have a meaningful impact on the design of learning programmes. The Koppen Climate Classification System offers a means to reduce the complexity of the SDGs; it helps navigate students through macro- to microclimates and develop design skills for different climate zones. Along this journey comes an exploration of the economic and social factors, what the SDGs mean at a national, regional, and local level and what sustainability means beyond the aspirational ‘goals’. Together they provide an opportunity to take architectural students beyond buildings, to consider more so the needs of people and communities, view things from a different perspective and reflect on what their future impact will be as professionals. This 10-week global sustainability project is creatively underpinned by autoethnography; a re-lived journey through not just the co-created experience, knowledge and skills exchanged with students during it, but its design and pedagogical approach, the dynamics of group work and peer-to-peer learning and managing individual expectations. Reflections offer insight into the merits of a brief release from disciplinary expectations and architectural conventions to question the sustainability of the profession itself and its future contribution.

This paper presents the Affective Mapping project, a project to map public spaces in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, through the eyes of children. Coordinated by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, the project aimed to evaluate the Education Environment and the Public Open Spaces System in the city, and it was enabled through an agreement between academia and the municipal administration. It was formulated through a survey about the students’ journey between home and school, answered through drawings and texts, and was applied simultaneously in the primary schools on November 8, 2019. This survey reached 734 schools providing over 13.000 forms with contributions from students with diverse social backgrounds coming from different neighborhoods. We established a matrix with analytical categories, designed to analyze the relationship among urban environment, infrastructure, mobility, school communities, and public spaces, with a focus on the urban inequalities shown by the students’ perceptions and wishes. The criteria were based on literature review and field experiences and were proposed to better synthesize the data’s collection, spatial coverage, and subjective aspects, resulting in a GIS mapping according to the school districts. We intended to systematize the apprehension of children’s perception as potential coauthors of urban planning and design actions and processes. Finally, as an objective result this paper presents the Affective Mapping research methodology that can be applied in the formulation of urban policies, as a collaborative strategy aiming at the SDGs and NUA objectives. In 2022, the Affective Mapping was one of the arguments for the candidacy of Rio de Janeiro to the International Association of Educating Cities ( https://www.edcities.org ).

This work presents a community outreach course to develop skills for participants to become multipliers of solutions for adapting public spaces in different contexts, using Tactical Urbanism as a Social Technology. Tactical Urbanism is an approach to activating neighborhoods using short-term, low-cost and scalable interventions that allow the immediate redesign of public space, targeting future transformations. Creating a network of local agents is essential to building agile and replicable responses to new demands and creating resilient communities. Thus, we propose the concept of “multiplication of knowledge”, considering: the community of learners; the need to master processes and reciprocity. The first idea resides in the formation of multidisciplinary groups in search of knowledge that enables the recovery of public spaces; the second is based on the dissemination of tools for citizens to become agents of change and the third refers to feedback: knowing how to reevaluate solutions. The course offers contemporary content that criticizes the car-centered paradigm of Brazilian cities and helps to propose changes in daily life with a focus on people and on strengthening communities. It is organized on three levels: the proposing team trains tutors (officers from the public sector, architects, NGOs, neighborhood associations), who interact with local agents (citizens), promoting capillarity so that Tactical Urbanism interventions take place. Divided into three modules—discover (case presentations and theoretical content); design (development of solutions); and prototyping (testing of proposals)—the course combines recorded classes that allow replication with face-to-face workshops and DIY interventions.

The Social and Environmental Impact Academy for Architects (SEIAA) is a collective project that includes research and teaching activities of four architectural schools across Europe: University of Liechtenstein (LI), Hasselt University (BE), Bergen School of Architecture (NO), and the Royal Danish Academy (DK). Based on shared research objectives focusing on the sustainable development goals (SDGs), four investigating workshops were held at each location between spring 2022 and summer 2023. Knowledge about rammed earth, biogenic materials and architecture of reuse was combined with local cultural practices, creative design processes, and full-scale testing. The workshops were planned according to specific local needs and in collaboration with various actors such as manufacturers, craftspeople, and NGOs. The workshops involved teachers, researchers, and students from each university. They were centered around an interdisciplinary exchange examining the architect’s role, testing social interaction through live projects, and studying how architectural projects can benefit the needs present in the everyday life of local communities. The processes included in the project, the results, and reflections will be presented and critically discussed in this paper for further use.

Public spaces where peace and quiet can be experienced are important for the development of qualitative urban environments. The term ‘lee-places’ is used to refer to public (green) spaces where experiences of peace and quiet bring a balance to the busyness of a city (Peymen and Jellema 2017). Lee-places have particular spatial qualities and offer opportunities for individual experiences and social interactions, potentially benefitting mental health. They can contribute to well-being, social cohesion, equitable access to urban life and community resilience. To identify potential sites and accommodate lee-places, (interior) architects bring a design-skillset to consider factors that affect sensory experience and body posture(s). Simultaneously, urban planners may consider the integration of lee-places in a coherent network at the scale of a neighbourhood. We present results of an education-based design research project organised in 2022 in the Muide-Meulestede neighbourhood of Ghent, Belgium. Students from an interior architecture studio were involved, alongside architecture and urban planning students. Designs are generated with the aim to explore and discuss existing, not-yet-recognised and potential lee-places. Design proposals focus on particular sites and on interventions that can be applied to a wider variety of sites. Through an analysis of the design proposals and interactions and collaborations stimulated throughout this project, our contribution illustrates how this course scaffolds interdisciplinarity and a rich understanding of the potential of lee-places. Students acts as ‘intermediary’, utilising design(s) to discuss social contexts with neighbourhood residents, property owners, policy makers and professionals to strengthen the societal support for lee-places in urban contexts.

In an increasingly complex world, the design disciplines often remain tied to rigid modes of practice. Among these is the growing weakness of the collaboration between academic and professional environments, which instead the scientific literature indicates as a potential ground for innovation due to their complementary nature and the different types of expertise they nurture (Amin and Roberts in Res Policy 37:353–369, 2008). How could we reframe and rethink architectural design to strengthen the relationship between academia and professional practice? How could this interaction innovate the practice and the architecture discipline in a global perspective—in the pursuit of the values expressed by SDGs 8 (“decent work and economic growth”) and 11 (“sustainable cities and communities”)? In specific geographical and regulatory contexts, professional and academic institutions find wide spaces for collaboration (University Design Institutes in China, PennPraxis at the University of Pennsylvania, etc.). Against this background, the project Polito Studio aims to reframe existing institutional structures and define a platform for collaboration-in-practice projects between the academic and professional spheres. Such a platform is constructed through successive forms of “putting into practice” (Barbera and Parisi, Innovatori sociali, Il Mulino, Bologna, 2019) that allow to define, in the running, objectives, tools, and actions. The project intends to create a horizontal platform where a newly formed group of practitioners work together at a transnational scale, “perforating” international markets most commonly dominated by large global firms, through professional expertise combined with scientific research, and modes of labour and care that are more easily found at the small scale of practice.

Multiple worlds in coastal Agger—a narrative essay about the architectural and societal conditions and potentials in the rural landscape village Agger (Agger: located in the northwesternmost part of Jutland. The name Agger derives from Aagher which presumably describes a pasture, a field or a meadow. The place Aagher is first described in 1319). New worlds of local empowerment, appreciation, and awareness of possibilities and potentials awaken through architecture as media and students of architecture as ambassadors for academia in a dynamic time. What can we learn from places like Agger and what is it urbanization leave behind? Are rural communities even relevant to the education of architects? Through a five-year period from 2017–2021, the Institute of IBBL at the Royal Danish Academy of Architecture in Copenhagen has hosted a three-week field study course for BA-students. The students can choose between extraordinary locations varying from locations abroad to domestic sites like the small coastal community of Agger in Thy, Denmark where I have had the privilege to be responsible for that specific course. We go there to learn from a context that holds immense complexity and great challenges for third-year students of architecture and to discover how architecture can create new worlds. The course takes us to the far outskirts of Danish welfare society and into the very middle of an “unknown” community where architecture students become catalysts of aesthetics and architectural archaeology. It is an attempt to develop the student’s ability and capacity to dive into specific contexts and enable them to create situated projects for the well-being and benefit of the given community, to develop an architecturally based language that resonates with the context in all its complexity and to develop relevant answers to challenges in complex times. The course awakens perspectives, creates awareness on everyday lives sometimes hidden qualities, and establishes a resonance between art, architecture, academia, and the hyper-specific ecologies of Agger.