Navigating Socially Sustainable Urban Design Projects

Abstract

For a multitude of reasons, migration to Europe has increased over the last 40 years. In Denmark, as in many other countries, this development brings together a mixture of cultures, where people with different cultural backgrounds, values and ways of life need to live together in a society. With this in mind, this article focuses on how design can play a role in connecting communities in deprived neighbourhoods as well as how designers/architects can enter as active partners in socially sustainable urban design development projects. The article presents the conceptual frameworks of social frictions, social city models, affordances and the role of the designer, all of which are discussed and analysed through two student projects, in the Design for People Masters Programme at Design School Kolding in Denmark, as case studies. The analysis of the two projects in connection with the discussion of social frictions, social city models, the notion of social affordance and the role of the designer/architect results in a preliminary model, which we argue can support ways of navigating in socially sustainable urban design projects.