Promoting Social Sustainability in Public Spaces through Physical Approaches

Sustainable development is a new topic which has been considered in the last half century after the industrial revolution due to industrialization of cities and the growing expansion of industries and technologies regardless of its effects on the lives of future generations. Sustainability can be considered from three aspects of environmental, economic and social. The social aspect is the newest aspect devoted to sustainability. Social sustainability in the urban environment means that individuals, communities and societies live together with the right quality of life in the field of social relations and pursue the goals of sustainable development. In order to realize this issue in cities and neighborhoods, the policies and actions related to planning, urbanization, architecture, economic development and social policies must be in line and consistent with each other. Studies indicated that achieving social sustainability requires the strengthening of social structures and promoting the quality of social indicators while the quality of the community s presence in society is influential in terms of the environmental quality. In other words, social sustainability can be strengthened by promoting the environmental quality and improving the physical context of communities. The public space of cities is the most important place for establishing social interactions which are one of the most significant indicators for social sustainability. Thus, the quality of the public space can be considered in line with the quality of interactions and social sustainability. the present study aimed at developing the framework for building and strengthening social sustainability in the public spaces of neighborhoods as part of landscape emphasizing its physical aspect. Therefore, first the concepts of sustainability, social sustainability and its various aspects were discussed and then the public space and its place in creating social interactions and social sustainability were discussed. Finally, the physical characteristics of public spaces, promoting the different aspects of social sustainability, were examined. The research method was descriptive-analytical and the required data were collected through library method and referring to various documentary sources. The research indicated that the characteristics of public space can be explained to achieve social sustainability in terms of identity and sense of belonging, readability, comfort, vitality, aesthetics, and access.