Urban sustainability assessment forEnvironmentally Sustainable Framework by Socialpractices and practice architectures

Despite the growing literature on sustainability assessment in the urban context, the resultingapproaches and methods use several different theoretical frameworks and lack a unified perspectiveand operational practices. Countless tools and instruments have been created for specific purposes andrelatively limited purposes. Strangely, these tools and instruments are unable to track and assesssustainability in vernacular forms and traditional built environments, even though environments suchas these clearly have principles of sustainability in addition to aesthetic values and spatial attributes.This paper examines the theoretical background underlying current sustainability assessment methodsin the urban context to identify their general limitations and specific application to indigenous andtraditional built environments. Also, this paper discusses some cultural and spatial characteristics ofthe traditional form to identify its embedded sustainable strategies and functions. The paper concludeswith a general conceptual framework for developing general principles of sustainability for traditionalbuilt forms in response to their natural and cultural contexts.This qualitative study of secondary schools in England included interviews with stakeholders andstudent focus groups in twelve schools in Greater London and the Thames Valley region (Berkshire,Buckinghamshire, Oxford shire), where ۱۴۲ people including teachers, students, parents, governorsand school staff (leadership, facilities, finance) participated in the research. The literature review ofthe concepts of sustainability assessment in the urban context and the sustainable principles embeddedin the native and traditional format is followed by the thematic analysis of its limitations, which is fedfrom a new framework based on principles to this conceptualization. A total of ۱۰ principles ofsustainability have been proposed to evaluate sustainability in traditional built environments, takinginto account the diversity of the site and the specific context of the site.

Keywords:

Sustainability , resilience , Urban sustainability , Sustainability Assessment , Traditionalbuilt environment