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The purpose of this paper is to review, analyze and synthesize different pieces from literature to explore, define and describe the concept of social capital and its relationships with urban neighborhood design concepts. Additionally, to define the indicators and principles that can enhance social capital within urban design context. Moreover, to suggest theoretical urban neighborhood design concept that can adopt the changing discourse of social capital.

This research used the theoretical, analytical and descriptive approach-driven case study method. In all, 29 papers were analyzed to conclude the indicators that can measure social capital within the urban neighborhood design context and to conclude the required neighborhood design features and principles that influence social capital. Additionally, two new urban neighborhoods design concepts, cohousing and hybrid concepts that adopt new forms of social interaction, were studied, analyzed and then synthesized to suggest new neighborhood design concept, which is a heterotopia concept.

Heterotopia neighborhood concept aims to create real, different and heterogeneous functional spaces with different layers of meanings for people from different cultures in one place. Different visible enclosures are merged into spaces of otherness while the diversity gives a sense of entering another alternative place. The heterotopias neighborhood design principles aim to create a wide variety of forms, shapes and elements [different new spaces for different ritual activities to reflect the otherness self-reflection (homogeneous and scattered spaces)] and create linkage, hierarchy, contrast and mingling between spaces and places; well-defined functional effective spaces; different fantasy and leisure spaces; high standard quality of life and otherness space; flux in social realm and fluidity of spaces; mixed use and joint experience; and innovated technologies spaces to offer strange new temporalities.

This research recommended that different community stakeholders should participate in planning process, neighborhood urban design and decision-making process about public spaces to strengthen the community ties and achieve a heterotopia concept. Architect, urban designers and planners should adopt bottom-up design approach when designing neighborhood. Additionally, to avoid poor social capital research studies, the new researchers, practitioners and journal reviewers approaching social capital for the first time must read widely to gain an understanding of the concept from different perspectives and narrow their scope to their particular area of interest.

This research highlights the needs for empirical studies to examine the relationships/interrelationships between all neighborhood design principles and social capital. This might increase the knowledge on how we can design and increase the quality of neighborhood to foster social capital, which might offer interesting insights into how neighborhood urban design principles are combined to foster social capital within neighborhood context.

Neighborhood-based research encourages new suggesting concepts in designing every single place in the residential neighborhood in a way that can adapt the new forms of social interaction. This research scanned the current concepts of neighborhood design that concerned successfully with the changing forms of social relationships to conclude some design features and principles for neighborhood design to ensure and promote social public health and well-being. This research offers a unique perspective for better understanding the relationships between the neighborhood urban design as a spatial dimension and social capital. This research aims to enrich the socio-spatial knowledge and build a resilient urban community by suggesting theoretical urban neighborhood design concept, which is the heterotopia concept, and providing the urban designers and architects with a valuable thinking tool to design spaces.

The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of neighborhood design templates on residential home values in King County, WA, USA. Previous research examines a number of individual design factors; this study combines these factors into typologies and tests for the impacts of the composite set of design features.

The study analyzes over 27,000 home sales with a hedonic price model to measure the impacts across three large, regional submarkets. Neighborhood design categories are developed using a cluster analysis on a set of individual neighborhood attributes.

The key finding from this research is that the impact of more traditional (“urban”) design packages on home values is highly contextual. For the older and denser neighborhoods in the study area, a more traditional design results in a significantly positive impact on home values. In the new and more suburban regions of the study area, this effect is not found.

Prior work focused on valuing design attributes individually. The study argues that neighborhood design is better conceived of as a “package”, as the value of a given design element may depend on other co-located attributes. This is the first study, to the authors’ knowledge, to treat physical neighborhood design variables as a composite whole and to attempt to value their impact on home values as such.

The aim of this study is to identify factors that users find important in their use of the neighborhood park (to evaluate design of the neighborhood park from the view point of users) and to consider the impact of well designed neighborhood parks on business strategy compared to the traditional view.

The population of this study was drawn from park users and neighborhood residents. Park visitors were conveniently sampled through an intercept survey method form. Taman Sri Nibong Park is one of the biggest neighborhood parks in Pulau Pinang. A total of 173 questionnaires were returned. The data were analyzed through the use of descriptive statistics.

By knowing the needs and preferences of visitors and neighborhood residents, the present study concludes that more efforts should be made to include certain qualities in designing neighborhood areas to attract more visitors and investors. Related to the effectiveness of design on park users' perceptions and preferences, this study as well as observations has found that park users perceive some elements of environmental design, like physical barriers of fences and hedges between playground and the football field, effective in protecting users from accident and injury in the park. Another suggestion, which users made was for more supervisors to be in the park or playground to take care of the children while they use the equipment.

The current study is limited in its scope because of the need to complete the study within a limited time and budget. Future studies are needed to explore how design strategies of Neighborhood Parks can satisfy urban neighborhood populations and also support social business development. The directions for future research are identified as more research should be conducted in this regard and more neighborhood parks should be considered allowing for comparison among them.

This research would enable landscape architects and environmental designers as well as business and community developers to match specific developmental goals of urban neighborhood environmental planning. It can influence business strategies to attract more investment by the community developer, and also this new approach can influence the future of the society and its sustainability.

The paper challenges the traditional view of parks as places that only incur social expense to a new perception that views them as revenue and social business places.

This paper aims to investigate the ways that could enhance residents’ social interaction in low-rise residential building neighbourhoods of Basra city in Iraq. The lack of social interaction among residents of Basra city prompted the authors to frame a strategy for this case study.

The spatial design characteristics of low-rise residential building neighbourhoods implicated to support the residents in terms of social interactions in comparison to those exhibited by a single home and traditional neighbourhoods. The statistical data demonstrated that by using this strategy, several unique features of secured, collective, responsive and supportive spaces could enhance the residents’ social interaction.

This study found that all collective space factors have a significant influence on social interaction. “Fostering proper proximity and accessibility” factor was ranked first and the most significant factor with an influence on social interaction. Secured spaces (hierarchical spatial structure, physical security supports and construct) have a significant influence on social interaction. The most interesting finding in this study is that all factors of the supportive spaces construct have a significant influence on social interaction. Finally, this study showed that two factors of the responsive spaces construct, increasing variety and increasing legibility, have an insignificant influence on social interaction.

The design of low-rise residential building neighbourhoods in Basra city may be used to develop social interaction as the contributing factor for maintaining values of traditional neighbourhood communities. This study highlights certain recommendations for architects, especially urban designers, to reinforce residents’ social interaction in low-rise residential building neighbourhoods in Basra city.

Existing Neighborhood Sustainability Assessment (NSA) tools such as “Leadership for Energy and Environmental Design - Neighborhood Development” (LEED-ND) and “Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method” (BREEAM Communities) are widely criticized for a lack of transparency in the selection of indicators and an unbalanced focus on specific sustainability dimensions.

This paper asks how the expectations and use values of the professionals and residents involved in developing, designing, managing and living in a sustainable neighborhood can shape sustainability indicators that affect progress towards project goals. Taking as its focus The Sustainable City (TSC), a neighborhood in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), the paper develops data from in-depth, go-along interviews with 46 different actors.

Findings indicate that when given the opportunity to express their opinion, many actors will prioritize metrics different than the metrics dictated to the by sustainability experts and international rating systems. The findings suggest that NSA tools should place greater emphasis on local factors, public engagement and operational concerns.

The paper provides a method that any community can replicate to better understand the different use values of local actors and establish its own NSA tool. This can help experts learn how design, management and operational decisions interact to impact different dimensions of performance.

This paper recognizes sustainable neighborhoods as spaces with multiple identities. Hence, the indicators used to evaluate these neighborhoods need to be based on the expectations and use values of different actors. This paper proposes using the priorities of different local actors to reshape how these neighborhoods are assessed.

While the declining rate of urban security and its potential effects have been globally acknowledged, the ways urban neighborhood security shapes real estate markets in African cities remain largely unexplained. The purpose of this paper therefore is to present the findings from a study of the nexus between urban neighborhood security and home rental prices in Lagos, Nigeria.

This paper is based on the hedonic price theory, an objectively derived urban neighborhood security index (UNSI) and property rental price data in Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria. This is a quantitative cross-sectional study that employs multistage sampling survey procedure. Data are analyzed using descriptive statistics, nonparametric correlation and hedonic price function with ordinary least squares (OLS).

Results show that nearly 50% of the study area is prone to insecurity and average rental values in Ojo, Lagos range from N151329.41 ($302.66) to N167333.33 ($334.67) per annum. Correlation analysis shows that home rental prices have high, positive and significant correlations (rs = 0.725 and p < 0) with UNSI. After controlling for neighborhood and structural factors, it is found that urban neighborhood security positively influences home rental values as a unit improvement in security leads to N81000.00 ($162.00) increase in rental value per annum.

Urban neighborhood security risk threatens residential property values, creates unintended residential mobility and destabilizes families. Findings from this study point to the facts that security is a key component of urban housing values and developers, and real estate investors must ensure that this component is well factored into property design, construction and valuation.

This is perhaps the first study that uses an objectively derived UNSI to study home rental price dynamics in Nigeria. The study extends knowledge on urban housing price determinants and contributes to literature on the crucial place of security in property management.

The research intends to investigate the different typological and morphological characteristics of the neighbourhood spaces produced by different urban dynamics since the late nineteenth century in Turkey.

The main problem that drives the research is that a significant increase in the construction of gated communities has started to be seen in the last five years as a solution to safety issues in Turkey. However, these gated communities as safe-spaces have resulted in the danger of destroying neighbourhood life's physical and social dynamics by changing their spatial configuration. The study offers an analytical framework structured from defensible space theory and other safe-space theories in the literature. It has analysed the effect of physical characteristics of urban fabric on the production of safe-space in neighbourhoods through mappings and site observations. The case studies are conducted in three different morphological periods in Turkey, which are the Seyrancik neighbourhood in Bolu (the Ottoman Period), the Subayevleri neighbourhood in Ankara (the Republican Period) and the Karaman neighbourhood in Sakarya (the Liberalisation Period).

The analysis concludes that any type does not come to the fore in the production of defensible space in terms of its spatial features, but each has various strengths and weaknesses. As a result, this study emphasises the role of design in providing defensible neighbourhoods in the case of Turkey's cities and reveals the aspects that will guide the design of an urban and housing form in terms of the safety–environment relationship in Turkey.

The significance of the study is the comparative analytical approach to studying the housing development and demonstrates a method for analysing safety issues in the transformation process of neighbourhood structures in Turkey.

How does social capital matter to the creation of neighbourhood networks in cities? Social housing in Portugal is some times viewed as a single architectural and building environment development failure. This article discusses a relevant Portuguese urban planning landscape and aims to contribute to the discussion of one of its main purpose – the social housing experiment. The author discusses the case of this landscape as urban policy-making and evaluates its implementation and relevance. She hypothesizes that “neighbourhood units” have become a relevant case in the context of neighbourhood planning and housing social-mix in Lisbon. Firstly, she uses theoretical arguments and findings to discuss an urban experiment - Alvalade Landscape. Secondly, the paper analyses relevant data that demonstrates its links to the housing policies thus enriching the urban design. The article offers evidence from the Alvalade Landscape case study in Lisbon of theoretical and empirical community ties in the 1940s. Thirdly, the paper identifies some elements such as community units, social mix, sidewalks, and that have an impact on neighbourhood design as well as people’s lives. The findings show that supportive neighbour ties provide important network resources (social capital) concerning daily life, illness, support or financial aid. Finally, the paper suggests the relevance that social neighbourhood community has in housing programs and policies.

This paper aims to identify the key factors to design efficient, healthy and potentially economical neighbourhood places in the surroundings of smart cities to reduce the urban polarization for the sustainable urban development.

A two-stage methodology is followed. First, the key factors for neighbourhood are identified from literature studies. The selected factors are validated by sample t-tests. Second, the total interpretive structural modeling is used to interpret the complexity of relationships among various factors. Further, cross-impact matrix multiplication is applied for classification analysis to find the most driving factors for neighbourhood design.

The contribution of this research is to show hierarchical relationships among the various factors to design the neighbourhood places as smart from the perspectives of city planners and decision makers.

The applicability of the research findings is limited to developing countries mainly where population is large and most of cities have high pressure on its infrastructure to fulfil the citizens’ demands.

This paper will aid policymakers, city planners and government officials to design a sustainable smart city model in which smart neighbourhood would also be the potential solution to decrease pressure on a city’s critical infrastructure especially in developing countries.

A smart city could be considered as the centre point of smart initiatives to develop a place smart, and it should continue beyond the city boundaries to enhance the facilities, services, resources utilization and working environment in neighbourhood places also.

The study explores the various literature on neighbourhood planning and then link with smart city development as current need of urban development scenario. The authors propose a hierarchical relation framework to develop the neighbourhood places as smart places to meet the future demand of urbanization in developing countries like India.

This paper summarises research funded by the EPSRC EQUAL programme from 2000 to 2003 to examine how neighbourhoods could be made dementia‐friendly. Design for dementia generally focuses on the internal environment of dementia care homes and facilities, but most people with dementia live at home. Unless they are able to use their local neighbourhoods safely, they are likely to become effectively housebound. There is also increasing awareness of the role the outdoor environment plays in the health, independence, well‐being and cognitive function of people with dementia. The research defined dementia‐friendly neighbourhoods as welcoming, safe, easy and enjoyable for people with dementia and others to access, visit, use and find their around. It identified six design principles: familiarity, legibility, distinctiveness, accessibility, comfort and safety. A number of recommendations for designing and adapting neighbourhoods to be dementia‐friendly arose from the research.