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Design-led events are known under a range of different titles such charrettes, participatory placemaking, co-design and enquiry by design. Rather than being standalone, such events form one single step in a multi-stage collaborative planning process. What comes after them has to be acknowledged as important to their effective contribution to collaborative planning. To date, no coherent body of empirical evidence on the aftermath of events has been published demonstrating critical factors that contribute to their success.

The paper’s significance resides in identifying an extended framework for the stages in the collaborative planning process and in highlighting critical issues for ensuring that the aspirations and concerns expressed by stakeholders throughout the process are acted on and delivered, namely, subsequent decision-making and delivery; follow-on support, resourcing and funding; the legal status of events and related governance issues; and appropriate monitoring and evaluation practices.

The paper provides guidance for professional and local stakeholders who are expected to carry the burden of acting on the outputs arising from such events. To be successful, collaborative planning has to be based on longitudinal stakeholder engagement – both long before but also after such events. It is here that the significance of the results reported here lie.

The originality of this paper lies in its attempt to broaden understanding of what happens in collaborative planning following design-led events, drawing on interviews with professional and lay participants in events held across Scotland over the past decade.

This paper is concerned with what should happen after design-led events have been held to promote co-decision-making, between professionals and local stakeholders, in collaborative planning of the built environment. Rather than being standalone, such events form one single step in a multi-stage collaborative planning process. What comes before and after them has to be acknowledged as important to their effective contribution to collaborative planning. This paper aims to make a case for giving more attention to the post-event stages of collaborative planning, to ensure that the involvement of the public produces real and tangible benefits.

Content analysis of both academic and grey literatures was undertaken to examine emerging advice on how to conduct decision-making, the implementation of outputs and the delivery of desired outcomes, after design-led events. A critical review of the post-event decision-making and delivery activities is offered, which aims to add to the current academic literature on the deployment of design-led events. An attempt is made to sketch out the characteristics of post-event stages, drawn from the literature and collated specific examples of collaborative planning investigated in Scotland.

Three key factors are identified as affecting the successful implementation of decisions reached at design-led events: (1) a shared follow-on plan, (2) an agreed action programme for delivering this and (3) a properly constituted and resourced delivery vehicle that can monitor and evaluate progress. A research agenda to address questions raised but left unanswered is suggested dealing with how the decision-making and delivery activities following design-led events in collaborative planning might be improved.

A research agenda to address questions raised but left unanswered is suggested dealing with how the decision-making and delivery activities following design-led events in collaborative planning might be improved.

An in-depth literature review was undertaken to uncover (1) what are described as the desired outcomes for 20 minute neighbourhoods (20MNs) – the normatively based ends which planners, architects and decision-makers want 20MNs to achieve; (2) the means (the mechanisms, levers, triggers and causal factors) that have to be correctly assembled and lined up for 20MNs to operate as intended and (3), in order to avoid naive environmental determinism, the behavioural changes required to support the operation of 20MNs even where the required configuration of means can be achieved. The content analysis was conducted following guidelines offered by the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) criteria.

Growing interest in the urban design concept of the “20MNs” has been greatly accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been presented as a way of increasing the quality of local environments by enabling people to meet their daily needs through access to safe walking and cycling routes or by public transport. Internationally, it has captured the imagination of political decision-makers, built-environment practitioners and communities alike, as a life-affirming post-pandemic vision, held up as achieving environmental, health and economic improvements as well as reducing inequalities experienced by many. This paper's overall purpose is to separate the ends pursued in 20MNs from means available for achieving them.

The paper concludes that the ambition to see the 20MNs widely woven into existing urban, suburban and rural neighbourhoods will require significant effort to ensure all that all the component parts of, and key players in, planning's place-delivery systems are aligned and mutually supportive. Even where this can be achieved, further guidance will be needed on (1) how to operationalise the practical implementation of 20MNs and (2) how their success can be measured.

The originality of the paper lies in its efforts to discriminate between ends and means – between desired outcomes of 20MNs and the means available for achieving them. The significance of the paper lies here in this attempt to initiate a discussion on possible causal relationships between what is wanted and what would need to be done to achieve it. Without clarity about these relationships, misunderstanding, confusion and barriers to communication may arise across the many different organizations, stakeholder groups and actors involved. This lack of clarity could undermine trust and confidence, potentially undermining both the process and to its outcomes.

The neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks through which a proposed neighbourhood development can be evaluated against an array of sustainability indicators began to gain prominence in the first decade of the twenty-first century. However, how these frameworks align with the Bellagio STAMP is an area yet to be examined by existing studies to inform their better development and usage in the delivery of sustainable neighbourhoods. The purpose of this paper is to review selected neighbourhood sustainability assessment frameworks using the Bellagio STAMP with the aim of identifying areas for improvement, while also exploring the possibilities of adopting the Bellagio STAMP as a consensus approach and reference to sustainability assessment at the neighbourhood level.

Adopting document analysis as a data collection method, the paper reviews BREEAM communities, LEED Neighbourhood Development, Pearl community rating system and Green Star communities using the Bellagio STAMP.

Findings from the study revealed that some of the selected assessment frameworks align partially with the Bellagio STAMP in their development, while areas for improvement were identified.

The study recommends that the Bellagio STAMP could offer helpful guidelines and procedure in conceptualising sustainability assessment at the neighbourhood level especially in developing countries where such a framework is yet to be conceived.

This study adds to the sustainability assessment literature by operationalising the Bellagio STAMP leading to its better understanding and application in sustainability assessment either in practice or in theory.

Developing countries are currently on the verge of adopting principles used in achieving a sustainable urban future. As the urban population increases due to factors like urban–rural migration, increase in birth rate, migration, industrialisation, commercialisation, amongst others, there is a drastic need to adopt sustainability principles within urban spaces. To understand how sustainability can be achieved, there is a need to recognise how developed countries have designed assessment tools that work within their context which can inform how developing countries can work on their assessment tool. Urban neighbourhood sustainability assessment tools are used to reflect on the overall goal of the project and the most important indicators needed to be implemented within the project. Sustainability indicators are used to measure the levels and progress at which sustainability has been implemented within a project based on the data collected and these results can be used to make informed decisions. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the development of urban sustainability assessment tool.

This research investigates the techniques utilised in developing an urban sustainability assessment tool Sustainable Composite Cities Environmental Evaluation and Design (SUCCEED-ND) tool within the Nigerian context. The data instrument used includes a questionnaire survey that sampled 50 correspondents, and the results were used to develop an urban assessment tool tailored for the Nigerian countries.

The findings used social, environmental, economic and planning sustainability dimensions in the design of the assessment tool which composes of 21 core sustainability indicators and 105 indicators to develop SUCCEED-ND tool.

This work developed the first urban sustainability assessment tool for the Nigerian urban environment. The result is meant to evaluate and implement sustainability within existing and proposed neighbourhood development.

The purpose of this paper is to enhance sustainability in affordable housing in Saudi Arabia within an effective locally adopted sustainability assessment tool by discussing the multi interdisciplinary concept of sustainability in the built environment and introducing environmental indicators which are recently developed to foster environmentally responsible practices. The study aim expands beyond proposing sustainable feasible alternatives for existing affordable housing project in Saudi Arabia, namely, Al-Ghala project, to appropriating the measuring tool itself to make the review process easier, faster and more effective.

Al-Ghala project, a typical affordable housing project is selected to act as a case study for this research. The housing units are assessed according to LEED to obtain the overall evaluation which obviously reflects the quality of the project sustainability. Elements that negatively affect the score and suggested feasible remedies are then identified, as well as inapplicable and inappropriate LEED components. The data were complemented by observation, interviews with occupants and project management team, monthly consumption rates of water and electricity, in addition to computer modelling and analysis by Ecotect and Green Building Studio.

Sustainability in affordable housing requires a holistic framework that promotes environmentally responsible practices including design, construction and management phases. LEED provides evidence that it can considerably contribute in enhancing sustainability of post-occupied affordable housing units by identifying points of weakness that lead to inefficient use of energy, water and materials; paving the way for a wide range of sustainable modifications. In addition, for LEED to be competent in Saudi Arabia a native version needs to be developed in which local circumstances are taken into consideration.

According to the wide range of subjects covered by LEED, some elements could not be measured in depth. Impact of modifications proposed for LEED needs to be tested further.

The paper includes implications for the development of feasible environmentally sensitive affordable housing in Saudi Arabia.

This paper fulfills an identified need to study how affordable housing can be made sustainable.

The purpose of this paper is to attempt to bridge the gap between sustainable housing and the use of smart technologies to improve the level of sustainability in the housing construction in Saudi Arabia, by discussing the barriers and enablers concerned with applying sustainability to housing construction in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies.

A Delphi method survey was employed, for which 25 individuals from three key stakeholder groups of the Saudi housing sector participated. They were asked about their degree of agreement (or disagreement) about the various barriers and enablers of applying sustainability to housing construction in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. This research paper must be considered as an indicative study of selected experts that do not represent in any way the total population of Saudi Arabia.

Lack of public awareness has been identified as the most significant barrier in implementing sustainable housing development in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. Raising awareness of the public to the benefits of sustainable housing and enlightening key project stakeholders in the design of sustainable housing are both essential in order to overcome the barriers discussed in this paper. In addition, it is important to adopt smart sustainable construction methods, exemplified by but not limited to, appropriate water preservation and wastewater treatment systems that are simultaneously smart and sustainable.

This particular research has dealt with only barriers and enablers in the application of sustainability to housing in Saudi Arabia, which utilises smart technologies. For a more complete understanding, there is a need for further analysis of supplementary factors.

A study such as this, which identifies and prioritises barriers and enablers, could prove useful in guiding or encouraging the relevant ministry in Saudi Arabia to develop policies founded in the implementation of sustainability to the housing sector.

This research is a preliminary investigation into the implementation of sustainable housing development as it relates to Saudi Arabia.