Sustainable community design is something not to be considered as a radical concept emerging out of the terms of sustainable living. More often it gets conjured with the technological images which, on hand, are the crucial measures but also are only the small parts of the big concept. The basics of sustainable living start from the public realm, infrastructure, the concept of mobility occurring across the city and all the crucial little details out there which are important in fulfilling the need of allowing the community to contribute in the on-going growth of the city in order the make the most out of the opportunities to have the future residing into a healthy, liveable and sustained community.
“When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.” – John Muir
Sustainable community design basically looks at-
- The ways of using the portions of the land efficiently and effectively to ensure the protective nature of the development.
- The ways in which the opportunities are getting provided to the communities to adapt to their environment without impacting the same.
- The ways of erecting the infrastructure of the city to ensure its communities being a part of its on-going developmental growth.
With the increase in the growth of the global population, the population of the urban communities is growing even at a faster pace. To ensure sustained liveable conditions certain measures are now have been incorporated at the various stages of the planning process in the designing of the urban spaces-
Integrated Processes Of Design:
It emphasizes on the monitoring procedures, during and post-development with having a community dialogue altogether. The aim is to consider every aspect of all the disciplines at the initial stages of designing. The desires of the community could be evaluated at the onset of the project ensuring long-term developmental planning.
Like as, in Hammarby Sjostad, Sweden the community integration helps in the smoothening of the procedures at the stages of implementation.
Mobility On Demand & Social Integration: –
The idea of having the traffic management being carried out through the means of modern tactics of smart phones has resulted in the regulation of traffic mobility and routing, which results in the reduction of time travel which might occur from the congested areas. The modern concept of shared spaces and the improvement in the transit systems did somehow has blurred the economic boundaries. Car-sharing etc reduce the impact on the environment by consuming lesser fuel as compared to when one uses the self-owned vehicles.
Switching To Green Infrastructure-
The concept of switching to the green infrastructure could be implemented by the inclusion of municipalities through the official planning tactics or the zonal codes for the generation of green energies for a small piece of land.
Solar and wind energies being the two majorly prevalent forms gets into its terms the opportunities to generate a wider range of energy resulting in healthy practices for a sustainable living of the communities.
Sustainable Transit Development:
The sustainable movement emphasizes on the modes of travel considering every single phase of city mobility planning. The sidewalks, emphasizing the encouragement of walking does act as the pedestrian-friendly street designing pattern. Same as the public transit acts as an alternative option to privately-owned vehicles. The idea of providing the bicycle routes as the trail system also acts as a mode of reducing the number of conflicts in the fast-moving vehicles.
The vision for Jharkhand developmental planning 2026 aims at the inclusion of sustainable transit planning patterns.
Public Realm:
The public realm acts as a major alternative ode evolving the practices of sustainable living. It acts as a zone where the people get an opportunity to interact and the culture gets a measure to evolve. The benefits of green having a green environment inculcate the habit of healthy living among the communities.
These spaces could act as a walking world to the major public gathering spaces to the art monuments and museums where one gets the opportunity to feed and consume the cultural instincts of each other.
Effective Land-Use-
The land majorly acts as the prime instinct of sustainable design to which the parameters of designing should act accordingly. How the land is being used and designed have a direct impact on the sustainable community living lifestyles. To strive on the efficient land-use tactics one needs to ensure that the majority of needs could be generated out of a single piece of land, this is where the mixed land-use parameters come into form.
Mumbai developmental programme on mixed land-use patterns helps in the revival of the old-terms of efficient designing resulting in healthy sustained communities.
Space Reprogramming:
The practice which Vancouver, Glasgow, New York, and others are testifying to make out the pace of growth in the areas in recent years is the densification of the existing fabric despite erecting out on a new piece of land. The idea could also be made possible by providing the communities out with such spaces that could switch its functions based on needs.
Waste Regulation-
In comparison to the traditional waste disposal measures, the idea of having a vacuum waste disposal is what the present scenario demands. This disposal technique comes out with certain efficient ways of disposing of the wastes. Pneumatic tubes, sucking streams of wastes connecting the building altogether, disposes of the waste to the central plant. The omission of the need of proving the wasteful bags, and the fewer maintenance parameters of the technique, makes it far more efficient to be used in high-density urban spaces to carve out the healthy sustained environment for the communities.
