Cultural Influence on Evaluation System of Social Sustainability in Turkish Housing Projects

Abstract

Architects have always been keen on providing efficient and ideal housing while considering multiple factors because it is one of the essential needs of human beings. Sustainability has become a core topic in housing design and several studies have tried to define the important factors that should be considered in order to realize sustainable design. Lately, architects and urban planners managed to take steps forward towards social sustainability in design to define the socio-natural relationship allowing lasting environmental quality. Many studies in the US and Europe were conducted to analyze this complex mission. Since different communities have developed different cultures, traditions, and attitudes dealing with housing projects, this paper aims to investigate the different factors and criteria to analyze and evaluate social sustainability in housing projects for culturally different societies. This investigation provides an understanding of the diverse needs of those different communities in terms of socially sustainable design. Different case studies from similar cultures in Turkey and Syria have been analyzed towards the establishment of clear and solid scientific evaluation system suitable for those communities in order to discuss the factors needed to achieve social sustainability of housing on an architectural and urban scale.

Keywords

• Social sustainability
• housing
• culture
• Turkey
• Syria