Strategic urban design for sustainable development: A framework for studio and practice

Abstract

Urban design seeks to apply the goals of sustainable development in the physical design of cities. It involves complex efforts to explore and address a whole range of urban issues in accordance with the goals of sustainable development. However, it faces challenges to consider the feelings of local communities about unsustainabilities in their environment and to impact the actual urban development. Deploying strategy, which is the science of making the most effective use of a situation to achieve goals, to urban design helps overcome these challenges. This study recommends an interdiscipline of strategic urban design. It proposes a framework of strategic urban design for participative, timely and implementable physical design for sustainable urban development. A cyclic framework of strategic urban design is proposed that comprises four steps: (i) set a goal for urban sustainability, (ii) explore unsustainabilities from citizens' perspective, (iii) explore unsustainabilities that are source of other unsustainabilities, and (iv) design multi-projects to tackle source unsustainabilities. These steps are explained with methods and templates for application in urban design studio and practice.