Social and cultural sustainability in architectural design studios

Abstract

What changes are needed to make cities and built environment in globalize world compatible with sustainable development? What are the responsibility of architects and the role of architectural education on this subject? The research presented in this paper is focused on these questions. Sustainability is not a new concept and sustainable development have been widely used but their definition is elusive. The concept of sustainable development summarizes the challenges that the world is facing to manage a global social and economic development. Cities have been given a central place in discussions about sustainability problems and current attention is that some fundamental changes in world-views, values and human behaviors are necessary to sustain human societies. The cultural and social dimensions of a society have strong influence on and are indeed partially composed of the value, norms, customs, social structure and life style of a community.