Httpsdigitalcommons Bau Edu Lbcgiviewcontent Cgiarticle 1069&context Hwbjournal
Httpsdigitalcommons Bau Edu Lbcgiviewcontent Cgiarticle 1069&context Hwbjournal
Httpsdigitalcommons Bau Edu Lbcgiviewcontent Cgiarticle 1069&context Hwbjournal
Volume 1 Issue 3
SPECIAL ISSUE
Urban Health & Wellbeing Building Collaborative Article 17
Intelligence for Better Lives in Cities
ISSN: 2789-8288
October 2018
Part of the Architecture Commons, Business Commons, Life Sciences Commons, and the Medicine
and Health Sciences Commons
Recommended Citation
NOUR, WALAA Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Department of Architecture Faculty
of Engineering, (2018) "PRINCIPLES OF URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE," BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing: Vol.
1: Iss. 3, Article 17.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.54729/2789-8288.1069
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the BAU Journals at Digital Commons @ BAU. It has been
accepted for inclusion in BAU Journal - Health and Wellbeing by an authorized editor of Digital Commons @ BAU.
For more information, please contact journals@bau.edu.lb.
PRINCIPLES OF URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE
Abstract
Quality of life is a notion that has been discussed by philosophers, social scientists, economists conceded
with the question of how society should best allocate resources it has been widely used in a wide range of
contexts , including the gelds of international development, health care, political science, built environment,
education, reaction and leisure time social belonging. The purpose of this paper is to answer the question
of how can urban planning contributes to improving individual quality of life, introduce the nation of urban
quality of life that refers to the urban planning features that could enhance the individual quality of life,
which could be useful for planners and designers. Overviews of cities and their effect on people, presented
in handbooks in the area of environment behavior studies, often start by listing the positive and negative
traits of cities mainly in relation to density and opportunities on one hand, and crowdedness, pollution and
alienation on the other. Individual studies on single aspects of urban form and their impact on cognition,
affection and behavior and attitudes are also very plentiful, with several journals dedicated to this theme,
and a fast-growing international portfolio of cases and examples. Urban form is the setting where a
more complex sharing of responsibilities needs to occur because, as we will show, shaping, controlling
and being able to access the urban realm is signigcant for our well-being. Morphological structures and
control relationships that are capable of better integrating social processes, material form and spatial
organization can be found in the literature and require further investigation and development in the context
of contemporary urban design and sustainable living challenges. Cities are many things to everyone; for
the purpose of this chapter, we see them as grst and foremost sources of behavioral and experiential
opportunities, which other environments cannot offer. As such, we look at urban form as shaped by urban
design at three main scales: metropolitan, neighborhood and pedestrian. We then search for studies that
relate domains of QoL to each of these scales, including a focus on objective and subjective indicators.
Keywords
Quality, urban planning, principles, cities, urban metabolism.
WALAA NOUR1
1 Associate Professor of Architecture and Urban Design, Department of Architecture, Faculty of Engineering,
Tanta University, Egypt
ABSTRACT: Quality of life is a notion that has been discussed by philosophers, social
scientists, economists conceded with the question of how society should best allocate
resources it has been widely used in a wide range of contexts , including the fields of
international development, health care, political science, built environment, education,
reaction and leisure time social belonging.
The purpose of this paper is to answer the question of how can urban planning contributes
to improving individual quality of life, introduce the nation of urban quality of life that refers
to the urban planning features that could enhance the individual quality of life, which could
be useful for planners and designers.
Overviews of cities and their effect on people, presented in handbooks in the area of
environment behavior studies, often start by listing the positive and negative traits of cities
mainly in relation to density and opportunities on one hand, and crowdedness, pollution and
alienation on the other. Individual studies on single aspects of urban form and their impact
on cognition, affection and behavior and attitudes are also very plentiful, with several
journals dedicated to this theme, and a fast-growing international portfolio of cases and
examples. Urban form is the setting where a more complex sharing of responsibilities needs
to occur because, as we will show, shaping, controlling and being able to access the urban
realm is significant for our well-being. Morphological structures and control relationships
that are capable of better integrating social processes, material form and spatial
organization can be found in the literature and require further investigation and development
in the context of contemporary urban design and sustainable living challenges.
Cities are many things to everyone; for the purpose of this chapter, we see them as first and
foremost sources of behavioral and experiential opportunities, which other environments
cannot offer. As such, we look at urban form as shaped by urban design at three main scales:
metropolitan, neighborhood and pedestrian. We then search for studies that relate domains
of QoL to each of these scales, including a focus on objective and subjective indicators.
1. INTRODUCTION
From an overview on recent trends in urbanization, we will introduce the notion of control as a key to
read the following text and in particular we will:
A. Contextualize the concept of control in relation to the fields of both quality of life (QoL) and urban
form. In fact, the literature in both domains shows that there is a mutually reciprocal relationship
between aspects of quality of life and urban spatial structure.
B. Review established and recent research on the relationships between QoL and urban form, structured
around metropolitan, neighborhood and pedestrian scales, which illustrates the centrality of control in
shaping our cities and allowing quality of life to be fulfilled within them.
C. Propose a conceptual framework for socio-spatial urban design, which is sensitive to the relative
importance of predictive/structural and loose/flexible urban elements in the production and
management of urban space, and their critical role in affording their users a sense of control.
D. Suggest the need for a reconceptualization of city form away from an assemblage of material and
spatial elements towards a more integrated sense of a city as a mutually defining socio-spatial system.
2. QUALITY OF LIFE
Research on QoL started in the 1970s, in conjunction with the establishment of the journal Social
Indicators Review. Its area of investigation spans many disciplines, although its core sector of work is health.
Because of the wide-ranging scope of investigation in QoL, there is little agreement on its definitions and
approaches . Many have identified factors, domains, frameworks, and concepts to clarify and organize its
meaning. The World Health Organization recognizes that the study of QoL is at (financial status, employment)
and multidimensional. Developmental psychologist Ryff sees satisfaction with life not as contentment with the
achievement of a status.. The spatial organization of our urban habitat must be conducive to supporting and
sustaining us through these journeys. Greenbie offers perhaps one of the earliest attempts to develop an
understanding of spatial structure that is integrated with such fundamental human functioning. Citing World
Value Surveys and Gallup World Polls amongst others, which set out to measure QoL from thousands " many
components personal, social, economic, environmental Î which they then correlate, Montgomery (2013)
suggests how economic status, which for years was deemed the driving element for life satisfaction, is not
dominant and that indeed the most prosperous countries and cities in the world do not score higher in these
surveys. Rather, education, employment, location and social ties seem to do in turn, positively affect our
perception of health, being linked to the feeling of leading a positive and meaningful life.
Quality of life is a concept which in recent years has generated a great deal of interest, but it is not only a
notion of the twentieth century. Quality of life has been the focus of many studies but a consensus as to how it
should be defined has not been reached; it is a complex, multidimensional construct that requires multiple
approaches from different theoretical perspectives. There have been many attempts to define what constitutes
quality of life in the different disciplines. Quality of life is our ability to enjoy all that life has to offer. For
instance, the ability to walk, talk, see and feel all contributes to our overall quality of life. A quality life is a
life full of meaning and purpose.
https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/hwbjournal/vol1/iss3/17
DOI: 10.54729/2789-8288.1069 2
NOUR: PRINCIPLES OF URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE
https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/hwbjournal/vol1/iss3/17
DOI: 10.54729/2789-8288.1069 4
NOUR: PRINCIPLES OF URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE
has a rather consistent dimension seems to suggest that, even today, amongst all changes, urban
design should acknowledge such consistencies and respect them in new development.
been associated with a cultural bias that has long been studied in America. Recent investigations
show that big cities tend to score lower than small towns on three scales: poor neighborhood
quality, associated with housing conditions; home and neighborhood satisfaction with fair
neighborhood characteristics; and the neighborhood quality rating of older long-term residents
satisfied with their neighborhood, and young short-term residents not so satisfied with it. In all
these instances, small towns scored better than large cities but a variation in the cities studied
seems to suggest that those included were also those with a more generally uniform form of
neighborhoods, even across varying incomes, whilst other cities where the polycentric nature of
form was more evident did not feature. A significant obstacle to beneficial interpersonal
relationships in cities is criminality, one of the greatest sources of stress in urbanites. Fear of crime
limits our ability to go out (mobility) and interact with others (sociability), two key domains of
quality of life. It is also one of the main reasons why people leave the city (sometimes referred to
as suburban flight). Research shows that instances of crime and fear of crime are different, the
latter in fact not being the consequence of real risk, as summarized by Moser . Concentration of
crime is often higher in city centers, which being denser in activities tend to attract greater
densities of people; this can be explained on the basis of, amongst others, the principle of de-
individuation , which suggests that when the concentration of strangers is greatest, it is impossible
to identify the odd-one-out. The feeling of insecurity that is associated with fear of crime is linked
to the feeling of loss of sense of control and territoriality. Incivilities and aggressive behaviors are
heightened by physical form, with the sense of civic responsibility, the probability of intervening
when witnessing distress, and simple people-people interactions (i.e. looking at a stranger in the
eyes whilst walking) being reduced with an increase in density and the number of people around .
The concept of helpfulness has also been shown to be linked to city size. In general, it is higher in
smaller towns than cities, with 300,000 being the threshold above which there is no significant
distinction, and is affected by weather and noise levels (increases in both above certain limits
reduce it . Helpfulness can also increase in complex settings Î at least for women, not for men Î
and decrease with the number of people potentially there to help, explained as the overload
approach, similar to the deindividuation principle introduced by Rydin and Zimbardo. Urban
forms that allow for the performance of urban life through the establishment and maintenance of
unspoken behavioral rules have crucial implications for the nature of change and adaptability
within urban realms: an important concept in the delivery of urban social sustainability. Change
and adaptability in this context, and their relationship to resilient sustainable living, can be
captured through the conceptual lens of Forgiveness. Here, the action of forgiveness underpins a
conciliatory human-environment relationship uniquely able to articulate how environment can
Forgive human interventions and humans can Forgiven constraints that environment may impose.
The concept of forgiveness maintains that we will tolerate large amounts of discomfort if we have
what is most important to us. This is established within psychology but not in our relationship
with environment. The environment is an actor of forgiveness, part of a process of exchange and
thus significant as a means to explore connections that enable and constrain forgiveness . Such
connections become visible in human-environment relationships in how people develop
perceptions of relationships among themselves, society at large, and the wider natural world.
Consistent with this are ideas related to the struggle for recognition, which facilitates forgiveness
by connecting past experience with the present through " socially interactive need to experience
themselves as belonging, Recognized as a focus of concern, a valued contributor, or a responsible
agent, as central to achieving self-esteem (Honneth 1995). From this perspective, the attention of
urban design is beginning to shift from purely form towards patterns and the interpersonal
relationships that define them, supported in particular by recent debates criticizing the concept of
neighborhood as a physical entity associated with that of community . Whilst these still perceive
neighborhoods as important, they interpret them as fluid and variable, changing around
individuals, their interests and pursuits. Such fluidity does not negate the contribution of space to
shaping social interactions and collective behaviors; on the contrary, the latter seems to self-
organize around prominent spatial features, for example concentrations of shops and services. The
importance of this in the development of environmental competence was discussed earlier,
highlighting the significant role played by understanding the environment in terms of proxemic
sets. The concept of proxemic sets is resonant in the work of Spivak who considered the
environment to consist of a finite range of 13 characteristic settings, or archetypal places. Like
proxemic sets, which are primarily concerned with context defined in terms of the human-
https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/hwbjournal/vol1/iss3/17
DOI: 10.54729/2789-8288.1069 6
NOUR: PRINCIPLES OF URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE
environment experience, archetypal places go beyond physical features and are defined in terms
of the human behavior that occurs in them.
https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/hwbjournal/vol1/iss3/17
DOI: 10.54729/2789-8288.1069 8
NOUR: PRINCIPLES OF URBAN QUALITY OF LIFE
responsibility for, and those where these apply to others in society. The literature shows that this
can be interpreted in terms of spatial attributes that allow us to become aware of the extent of
spatial containment, where boundaries between adjacent spaces exist, and the extent to which these
can be controlled in order that we can define and protect items important to our material well
being.
5. CONCLUSIONS
Urban designs greatest contribution to quality of life spans across scales, from the city-wide to the
pedestrian and detailed one, through the distribution of basic services, the design of streets and blocks, and
their combination, in terms of walkability, intended as a complex term, inclusive of spatial convenience
(permeability), environmental quality (safety, appearance, interest, environmental comfort), and overall
legibility. Moreover, the modulation of density and complexity (of activities) encourages exposure to diversity,
the practice of social norms, the establishment of social networks, and engagement in civic activities .
Urban design should be intended as a process that, especially at neighborhood and pedestrian scales,
enables self-organization and modification through new forms of local space control. People-space
relationships are, indeed, reciprocal. We need a substantial shift in how we see ourselves as part of the world,
the city, and the neighborhood, in our personal, social and civic lives. Contextual pressures, from the
environment, the climate and its resources, to the scale and pace of urbanization, require a change in how we
make our choices. We might only just be seeing the end of a century in which choice was based on
accumulation, individuality, and substitution, and we might just be at the dawn of a time of awareness of legacy
and durability, and the convenience and affordability that they can offer. This requires learning how to move
from compartmentalizing our activities and environments to blending them for efficiency, so that both efforts
and effects contribute to more than their individual worth. Urban life is here to stay and indeed to grow at an
unprecedented pace, so we need to understand that the synergies it can offer hold a large stake in our well-
being. As the philosopher Berleant eloquently observed; What we need now is to reconceptualize our world in
a way that comes to terms with this, for what we do in the environment.
REFERENCES
- Adrian Jones. (2002). A Guide to Doing Quality of Life Studies, University of Birmingham
- Audit Commission (2005) - Public Sector National Report. Local Quality of Life Indicators –Supporting Local
Communities to Become Sustainable: A Guide to Local Monitoring to Complement the Indicators in the UK Government
Sustainable Development Strategy. Audit CommissionChurchman, A., & Ginosar, O. (1999). A theoretical basis for the
post-occupancy evaluation of neighborhoods. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 19(3), 267-276.
- Bettencourt, L., & West, G. (2010). A unified theory of urban living. Nature, 467(7318), 912913.
- Churchman, A., & Ginosar, O. (1999). A theoretical basis for the post-occupancy evaluation of neighborhoods. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 19(3), 267-276.
- https://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/quality-of-life
- Robert W. Marans, Quality of urban life & environmental sustainability studies: Future linkage opportunities , Habitat
International, Volume 45, Part 1, 2015.
- Robert W. Marans, Quality of urban life & environmental sustainability studies: Future linkage opportunities , Habitat
International, Volume 45, Part 1, 2015.
https://digitalcommons.bau.edu.lb/hwbjournal/vol1/iss3/17
DOI: 10.54729/2789-8288.1069 10