Role of social spaces in Mixed use developments in optimizing Social sustainability at neighborhood level –Comparative study | Original Article

ABSTRACT:

The current paper looks at exploring the need to identify “Social spaces” and “Social interactions”based on such social spaces in context to the changing urban scenarios at the scale of mixed use neighbourhoods today and the potential of these neighbourhoods in optimising the social sustainability for „spatially dependant user group‟(group of people dependant on neighbourhood spaces for social exchanges). Significance of research In Context of changing Urban Scenarios ,the impacts of changes in the builtunbuilt relationships and changed formats in social exchanges ,will need redefining what is” Social space” and hence a need to identify typologies within neighbourhood spaces which will play key role in optimising social sustainability. The current research attempts towards understanding the factors shaping this socio-spatial dynamix, for functional, liveable and sustainable Social spaces for the spatially dependant user group through comparative mapping and analysis of three different mixed use neighbourhoods to arrive at measuring how sustainable the given neighbourhood is with the current status of how active and how much adequate the social spaces are are their impact in defining the overall social sustainability of the neighbourhood. The literature review will investigate the concept of “Social sustainability”and be focused on how social spaces conducive to social interactions in a mixed use neighborhood can be crucial in shaping social sustainability. Through social surveys and interviews qualitative –quantitative mixed methods to arrive at needs and typologies of different social spaces. The aim of this research will be to study how the built-unbuilt social infrastructure can be optimised to the changing societal needs of the “spatially dependant user group” ,enriched through new definitions of social connectivities , accessibilities and exchanges within the socio-spatial scale of mixed use neighborhoods.