Social Aspects

Nearly every project gives us opportunities to create positive change in the local social environment. The following are but a few ways social sustainability can be integrated into a project.

Neighborhoods cycle through various economic phases and good design can provide for all of these phases. For example, by providing live/work units at the ground floor of a project instead of dedicated retail, the project can function as purely residential during times of economic stress, and as a business during times of economic profitabilty. The live/work unit also promotes entrepreneurship by allowing a business to mature slowly, eventually becoming the main source of income.

Diversity is an important aspect of sustainability because it provides the population necessary to fill the locally needed economic, gender and age related roles. By providing a mixture of 1, 2 and 3 bedroom units in a project, a diverse group of occupants is welcomed, able to fill those various roles. Once a project is larger than a certain size, it becomes feasible for a developer to offer a few of the units to those of lower incomes. This further expands the diversity of the neighborhood.

Adding publicly accessible spaces to a project, such as open space or a meeting room, can have positive effects on the neighborhood.