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In Latin American cities a great part of the urban environment has grown through self-help processes leading to informal settlements. In the Mexican context, informal settlements are called “colonias populares” which means people’s or popular neighbourhoods. In the late 1960s Turner (1969) argued that popular neighbourhoods should be reconsidered as environments which are socially and culturally responsive to the needs of the inhabitants, as the architecture produced by low-income settlers is based on a system responsive to the changing needs and demands of the users. In these settlements the built environment is the result of the freedom available to inhabitants to take decisions and shape their own environment. This in turn gives place to a myriad of spatial expressions in which culture, identity and popular character are imprinted in both the private and public spaces. This paper explores these issues in the spaces between the dwellings in the public realm.

In the year 2000, a team from Istanbul Technical University (ITU) developed the “Urban m³ - Respect for Life Project”, which was aimed at providing shelter for those people who were left homeless as a consequence of the earthquake in 1999, in the districts of Arizli-Kocaeli in Turkey. This earthquake had a catastrophic effect on one of the most densely populated and industrial regions of Turkey whose population accounts about 20 percent of Turkey's total population. In addition to providing shelter, the major objective of this project was to re-establish those humanistic and natural values that had been lost or obscured in respect of the traditional, Turkish life-style and culture, as a result of the rapid urban-isation which took place after the 1950s. In 2000, research was conducted to evaluate the prospective residents' preferences in respect of their future housing and its environment needs. For this purpose, 400 people, who had been living in temporary housing in the area affected by the earthquake, were the target group of an in-depth survey. The main objective of the study was to determine whether the prospective residents' perceptions and evaluations matched the project designed by the ITU's team. It was assumed within the project planning and design that people would prefer the socially, and physically rich environment offered by the project. Based on the research findings, the ideology, philosophy and concepts underlying the “Urban m³ - Respect for Life Project” could be evaluated as an altenative design approach, which provides not only environmental protection and disaster mitigation, but also a high level of socio-cultural satisfaction. Thus, the paper suggests strategies for improved post-disaster (re-)construction.

This empirical chapter contributes to international business (IB) research on the United Nations’ sustainable development goals (SDGs) by opening a new research trajectory on sustainable headquarters (HQ) buildings. This multidisciplinary study conceptualizes the notion of a sustainable HQ based on a case study and three streams of literature – research on HQs, sustainable office design and the SDGs in IB. It offers a novel angle to prior research on HQs that has largely focused on their functional roles. While IB scholars are increasingly embracing the SDGs, limited attention has been devoted to SDG 11, “sustainable cities and communities.” This chapter draws on a real-time, longitudinal, single case study of a Nordic multinational in renewable products. The authors adopt a future-facing, phenomenon-based approach to envision and reimagine the modern wooden corporate HQ building on a culturally sensitive site in the heart of Helsinki, Finland. The findings emphasize the environmental, social, economic and cultural considerations of HQ buildings. By combining HQ premises with commercial spaces, and by opening the building to citizens, sustainable HQ buildings create a lively city space and increase urban social cohesion. The use of wood as a construction material and the application of design principles that promote human–nature relationships, have a positive impact on climate and human health. By focusing on the physical building, the authors aim to change the way IB scholars understand and study the role of HQ as a part of sustainable cities.

This paper aims to demonstrate a possible way in which cultural elements of minorities, in the specific case of the Romani, can be researched and operationalized in certain guidelines for designing housing intended for these groups. The paper was inspired by a constant failure of the present practice of solving the socially vulnerable Romani housing problems, namely, previous attempts have only achieved a negative outcome that, besides the partial satisfaction of urgent housing needs, does not respect the specificities of the Romani culture and lifestyle. The negative result has once again displaced this subject outside of the designing expertise and demands new examinations of strategical principles that precede the solving of the Romani housing question.

The authors create a methodological turn from the humanistic determination of the term culture towards the anthropological one, forming a clear methodological position of accessing the Romani culture. To test this approach on Romani settlements in Belgrade, this study used on-site observations of everyday life and informal interviews with residents.

As a practical result, this paper presents an operational knowledge base about Romani housing with design recommendations. In the social sense, this knowledge contributes to the scientific description and explanation of the characteristics of Roma housing. In a wider sense, this paper has the potential to shed light on similar problems of minorities that are present outside of the national borders of Serbia.

The topic of Romani housing is insufficiently researched, especially in the region of the Western Balkans. For this reason, the present study and the obtained results represent a significant contribution to scientific knowledge in this field.

The purpose of this paper is to ask how forms of “performative” interventions can prompt processes of re-thinking, which can, in turn, instigate the critical production of public space. Most importantly, it also asks how this methodology can manifest within various cultural and political contexts. Today, public spaces tend to be controlled either by the state or by private corporations. Neoliberal policies promote commercial interests, which subsequently drives inequality and determines what can and cannot be accessed by the public. The public spaces that are currently present in the neoliberal cities are, in fact, “pseudo” public spaces.

In an attempt to form new understandings of this problem, the authors’ approach is rooted in feminist theories of performativity, which focus on how identities are persistently re-produced through performance. These theories consider how the “self” is always entangled within everyday life interactions and how it is shaped by both societal and bodily practices. Framing spaces as shapable, informed by the embodied dialectic relations between spaces and social relations, the study uses forms of performative methodology to create productive disruptions and “constructed situations” (Debord, 2012). This methodology consists of intervention within these spaces in order to produce alternative public space and forms of publicness. Based on research conducted at the Sheffield School of Architecture, as well as a four-day invited workshop at the Floating University Berlin, this study investigates applications of performative practice methodology in the cities of Amman and Berlin.

The paper will begin by exploring how the two cities are regulated through various political and planning policies that affect public spaces. This line of enquiry will also involve questioning physical, social and political access to public space in these contexts and analysing the various actants, performative actions and processes that were involved in producing performative interventions.

The paper will conclude by discussing the potential and limitations of applying and translating such approaches in public spaces within different cultural and political contexts. As such, the study proposes a new methodological framework for re-thinking and provoking the critical production of public space through forms of performative spatial practice.

This paper aims to examine how US architectural programs are addressing environmental imperatives through curricular‐based initiatives. It offers a brief overview of how environmentally conscious design education has evolved and compares curricular approaches to social, aesthetic, and technical sustainability education from six architecture programs considered to be national leaders in sustainability education.

Views from leading architectural programs on sustainable education were compiled and assessed leading to a curricular study of course and degree offerings.

It was found that four consistent approaches to undergraduate sustainable design education are being promoted: core value: all course content addresses sustainable design; systems‐focused: support courses fulfill needs for sustainable education; choice: sustainable education is through student selection of courses offerings; and specialization: sustainable education is a specialty endeavor mainly at the graduate level and in concert with centers or institutes. A new “composite” approach to sustainable design education is outlined.

Conclusions about architectural curricula were drawn from the assessment of a limited number of representative programs. The findings demonstrate that a technical‐course based approach from the specialist perspective still dominates most architecture programs.

The paper contributes to discourse on sustainability by examining how leading US architectural programs are currently addressing environmental imperatives through curricular‐based initiatives.

This paper concludes that a culturally based approach from a generalist perspective which encompasses systems knowledge and interactions among many disciplines is needed in design education.

Beyond architecture, the findings will be useful to many disciplinary domains considering the transition to a stronger, more fully integrated, environmentally focused curriculum.

A public space is a place of significance when it fulfils the human need for social interaction and attachment. However, the scarcity of public spaces poses a challenge to support socialisation for people within a defined social and cultural group. The purpose of this paper is to explore the association between place attachment and social interaction within public spaces in the city centre of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Face-to-face interviews with urban users were conducted to examine the users’ engagement in three main public spaces in the city and the significance of these spaces to everyday social interaction. Field observations were carried out to examine patterns of users’ activities and interactions.

The authors uncover a lack of multi-functional spaces to support diverse forms of interactions in the city. A street has an important function to generate activities. However, spaces for people to sit and stay remain scarce, and are in most cases consumed by extended commercial use and thus considered private. Opportunities for social interaction are very limited. The significance of the places relates strongly to commercial and tourism functions, and hence place attachment evolves around those activities. Participants associated their familiarity and engagement with interaction between familiar people, close ethnic relationships and business acquaintances.

The authors argue that more robust and socially responsive public spaces should be reclaimed for the culturally diverse users.

Development of attachment through meaningful spaces for people to stay and interact could enhance the role of public spaces in the city.

By understanding the social meanings of places, particularly in a multi-cultural setting, a stronger basis for designing and managing urban places towards resiliency and social sustainability can be provided.

This paper aims to expose the direct and indirect impacts of changing culture and society principles on the built environment, architectural scene and practice. Studying culture-architecture forceful formula in present-day Iraq, as not previously discussed, reveals how cultural shift affects the public image of architectural form, uses and activity system, thus how latter issues highlight or predict society deterioration or collapse.

Comparing and analysing past and contemporary works, highlighting strange values emerged later, personal survey and observing house forms, in-depth interviews, photos and architectural drawings are a set of methodological tools used in approaching research main objective.

Findings include two mutual systematic approaches. The first is to define, acknowledge and understand previous criteria, while the second is to disclose responsible authorities and institutions and their role in addition to necessary procedures to correct or minimize the impact of various changes on the contemporary architectural situation.

Contemporary Iraqi society and culture have been dealt with as distorted and destructive, where various unacceptable values describe its current image compared to the noble form of the inherited. As a true expression and a visible manifestation of culture with which it interacts, degraded architecture and urbanism in contemporary Iraq provide an accurate picture of the current state of society, its values, principles and beliefs.

This study aims to trace the transformation in the form of apartment building and the connotations it has in understanding the changes that occurred in the Jordanian society’s lifestyle over the past five decades.

A comparative case study analysis has been conducted amongst 170 apartments, covering 70 design attributes related to aspects of appearance, spatial organisation, parking and access to building, outdoor space and finishing. This was followed by experts and households solicitation to help giving more confidence on the validity and reliability of findings regarding the sorts and justifications for the changes that have taken place in the form of apartments over the studied time frame.

The results reveal changes in design attributes indicating particular alterations in people’s lifestyle. New interests act in formulating recent housing design attributes. People seem to turn into a more open social life within public community but more privatised living amongst family members. People are becoming more attached to indoor modernised lifestyle, in homes and public areas where activities take place. This entails pursuing a more comfortable, facilitating and enjoyable life that presents luxury and tranquillity.

Understanding the relationship between transformations in the built form of apartment buildings and the associated social alterations provides useful insights towards improving housing provision to better match the ever-changing demands of people and respond to alterations in their lifestyles.

Despite the proven importance of co-design as a way of improving the social relevance of architecture, there is a lack of opportunity for meaningful co-design processes in the current professional Master of Architecture programme in South Africa as it is largely modelled on the professional work stages of the South African Council for the Architecture Profession (SACAP), which are based on the assumption of primary authorship and authority of the architect.

This problem has been investigated by way of ten workshops with high school learners in the Mamelodi East township in South Africa, as part of a professional master’s degree in architecture.

The findings of the workshops indicate that the initial stages of design could benefit directly from the participation processes and could be critiqued constructively. However, increased resistance to the process by crit panels was experienced once the sketch design phase was completed and the expectation of primary authorship increased. Engagement of the learners in the latter part of the design decision-making process also diminished as levels of experience in spatial design became evidently further removed from the expected outcomes.

In terms of co-design discourse and the evident value of participatory skills in practice, it is evident that the initial work stages of concept, brief and ideation are fairly easily assimilated into the pedagogical requirements of the degree programme and as such could enable a more socially relevant and responsive approach to professional practice.

The South African standard of practising architecture leaves little space for the process of co-design, even within the educational environment. The value of co-design within this context lies predominantly in the values and conversations generated rather than the aesthetics of the end product. The process of co-design opens up the opportunity for new dialogues to emerge and for relationships to form.

Co-design illustrates how architectural intelligence can be exercised in a much broader spatial field that acknowledges more than just the building itself but social, global, ecological and virtual networks, thereby changing how the authors design, what the authors design and who designs it.

It is in the realm of co-design that the beauty of architecture oscillates between strangeness and the ordinary. If the authors embrace the power of the collective and collaborative thinking, the authors are able to conceive new ways in the making of architecture. In order to arrive at this, however, the straightjacketed approach of modelling the master’s programme on professional work stages and outcomes needs to be challenged so that true transformation of the profession can be enabled through its pedagogical instruments.