Can built form influence social problems?

The concept of cordial problems is linked to a broad spectrum of contrasting definitions. Jerome G Monis defines it as these loving conditions identified by scientific enquiry and values as detri amiable to human hearty-being. On the other hand Malcom Spector and Jon I Kits engage defined them as the activities of individuals or groups making assertion of grievance and claims with respect to some putative conditions. (http//syg2010-01.fa04.fsu.edu/Week_1.htm)Taking into devotion the diametrical approaches to this debate the point that the main fence for massess behaviour is fleshly socio-economic class bottom be argued. Urban approach pattern can be seen as ane of the reason for affable behaviour entirely to revoke the influence of social, economical and semipolitical factors is to simplify the complexity of company and the antithetical relationships within it. In any case both arguments volition continuously be episodes in the long saga of traditional controver sy.Social problems have been divided into 3 groups by Kenneth C Land (www.soc.duke.edu) Deviant behaviour, including drug and inebriant abuse, mental indisposition, crime and violence. Social contrast and conflict including aging, the ederly, racial and ethnics relations, the sexes and sexual urge inequality, poverty and economic inequality and home slightness. Finally, human groups and social vary which involve the changes in the economy and workplace. The social problems that can be correlated straight to urban form argon seen as the star under the social inequality category and antisocial behaviour.The line of thought that establishes that the strengthened form influences stationly to social problems has been named intriguerural determinism and assume that the layout and form of physical milieu would shape, even determine the quality of social a put outness.During the period following the entropy World War the architects of the Bauhaus and architects such as Le Co rbusier thought that they were in a position to alter society for the better through the spiritualist of physical approach pattern. By design we understand the design of a undivided t consume as well as the design of relatively pocketable scale units.Maurice Broady described this as the architects who builds a house or design a site plan who decides where the roads give and will non go and who decides which directions the houses will face and how close unitedly they will be, besides is, to a large extent, deciding the pattern of social life among the deal who will live in these houses. It asserts that architectural design has a direct and determinate effect on the way pot behave ( Maurice Broady 1968 cited in Taylor, N, 1998).The case of the Business Academy located on Bexley and designed by Norman Foster can be an example of how a stem control has changed students behaviour towards education. Very incompatible to the 1960s building where students use to visualise lesso ns, the Academy is an open-plan where lessons ar carried out in alcoves and where no grade of places have been created. The Business Academy has been seen as a success where the proportion of children at school achieving five good grades at GCSE has leapt from just 6% to 36% (www.channel4.com/culture/microsites/b/building/shortlist.htm).The results of this exploit could change the life style of the generation of students attending lessons in the building. The rectifyment of the education can bring a change for better work opportunities for the students and at the akin time will have an impact on the recognition of one of Londons most deprived beas.A building can also change the acquaintance of the character of a city. Frank Gehrys Guggenheim Museum transformed Bilbao from an industrial Spanish Basque region to an international tourist destination.But is this, just the building form, which has make the difference? To resume the success of some enterprises or the failure of others in physical terms is to simplify the complexity of society. We can attribute the achievement of the Norman Fosters project to the conjunction of a different kind of strengthened environment, when compargond with more traditional educative centres, and the introduction of bare-ass and innovative educational techniques. On the other hand the fact that such an important architect has designed a revolutionary building to be used as a school can have changed peoples perception about education. It has create a sense of identity among the pupils and in instanter has lead them to improve their performance.On the other hand Guggenheim Museum has demonstrated the importance of advocate and identity. It has been federal agency of the political strategy from an elite in order to change the image of one of the most problematic niches of nationalism in Spain, that is Bilbao. It does not only widen an optimistic view of the city but it also can be seen as the attempt of internationali sation of the Spanish culture after the pagan archaism of Francoism. It involves a tourist campaign which had the objective of promoting the city and positive regeneration projects which have improve the work and have transformed the fancy of the city.Consequently, built form is only a minor reason for the maturement of social problems. Social problems find typesetters cases in social conditions. Giddens argues that e reallyday lives be, of course, influenced, reproduced and changed by structures of social, economical and political power (Giddens cited in Dickens 1990, pg 3) and it is extremely toilsome to generalise about these affects. Physical space is socially constructed by peoples perceptions. What Giddens calls Locales be spaces which atomic number 18 indeed usually socially specified for some kinds of activities. Locales supernumerarydite social meanings and symbols which argon widely accepted and which considerably affect social relations (Giddens cited in Dick ens 1990, pg5). They affect how people interpret their own and peoples circumstances. Physical space is socially constructed.There is a socially constructed perception in Britain about areas characterised by high, concrete, block of flats. This kind of housing has always been cogitated with high levels of graffiti, malicious mischief and litter. Alice Coleman argues that vandalism take place in zones where residents are unable to keep a watch over who is entering or leaving their estates (A. Coleman, 1985, pg158). They are seen as impersonal, stratified dwellings and undesiderable places to live. Crime, antisocial behaviour, unemployment, poverty and inequality are seen as distinctive features of these places. But factors such as scurvy function, no good transport links, authority giving medication tenure and the collision of several marginalised groups suffering from what Durkheim called anomya condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or diminution of standards or values, and an associated feeling of alienation and purposeneless (www.free-definition.com/Anomie.html) are very relevant when considering the main reasons for this kind of problem.People who are not satisfied with society, who have not got the same access to commodities than the major(ip) part of the population and that experience from the indifference of institutions, which are characterised by low expertness occupations, family disorganisation, poverty, illiteracy and racism suffers are grouped in this kind of residential maturation which are cheap to build and can accommodate a large number of people in nominal space. These people are the product of exacerbation of a logic of economic and racist exception (Savage, Warden & Ward, 2003, pg76).once more we can argue here whether the physical environment is the reason for these problems and once again a new example contradicts the simplicity of the architectural determinism discourse. Spain, as almost all European cities is flat based. Almost 80% of the population in Spain live in flats. People in Spain have been brought up aliment in high density block of flats. The perception of people about living in this kind of housing is completely different to the British one. Being the common norm between the population it does not lead to any of the social problems described above. They are not associated to vandalism and poor quality accommodation. They are the standard residential housing where people live.The areas where vulnerable groups live are characterised by poor links of transport, no easy access to schools, located on the outskirts of the city and who residents are immigrants or part of a minor ethnic group. They are tenure tenants that want sense of identity with the place where they live, lack of resources and are victims of some conditions that are made difficult to improve their situation. The areas where they live are characterised by the use of cheap materials and an even higher d ensity than in other areas. Families live in small flats where they have to share rooms. The combination of all this features, in concert with the difficulties to establish zones of autonomy and self management is what, in Spain, generate major social problems and no the fact that people live in this typewrite of housing.Even the new theories which aim to explain social change and society within the context of postmodernity claim that the city will evolve as mean of facilitating interpersonal communication Although individuals live in a circumstance place and participate in community life in and just about that place, it is interaction and not place that is the essence of life (Clark, 2003, pg 139). Once again the importance of predominant social conditions over physical form are highlighted in order to understand the future of the cities or urban form and consequently its social costs. The global village is the sociological destination of the city. The power of media will spread urban values. Information, and no physical design, is being the ass for an explanation of the present and future society and of people way of living and behaviours. Information is the leviathan that will lead future changes and policies.Practically speaking in planning grounds, the future of the city is called compact city and will be the fruit of an urban renaissance supported by governments and elite groups.In its July 12 Spending Review the government announced a 50% increase in new social house buildingan extra 10,000 homes a yearand further plans to increase housing supply and improved affordability by funding the Sustainable Communities Plan to deliver 200,000 additional homes in the Thames Gateway and other growth areas (http//global.factiva.com/en/arch/print-results.asp). The government has named this project urban renaissance and it involves the better use of buildings within developed buck to accommodate about 3.8 million new households between 1996 and 2021 and to do t his the government supports the idea of the compact city, that is a higher density, mixed use development on brownfield land close to public transport nodes (Burton, 2002, pg 537).This encouraged urban renaissance will imply the adoption of high density constructions in order to satisfy the demand for new housing at minimal environmental costs and this means a high proportion of apartments and bench houses. The benefits will be the conservation of the countryside, less need to travel by car, thus reduced fuel emissions, support for public transport and walk and cycling, better access to services and facilities, more efficient utility and base of operations provision and revitalisation and regeneration of inner urban areas (Burton, 2002, pg 538).But which will be the social problems attributed to this new concept of housing form? harmonise to Elisabeth Burton, nine social problems have been seen by population as are related to compactness (Burton, 2002, pg 547-548)* access to supe rstores* access to green open space* public transport use* extent of walking and cycling* gist of domestic living space* death rate from mental illness* crime* social segregation* death rate for respiratory disease.Again we can argue that although some of the social problems can be seen as a product of this kind of development they are not directly correlated to built form. The invocation of the high-rise horrors of post war urban Britain and the congested squalor of Victorian Britain is where Bowers see the root of this apprehension (Bowers cited in Jenks, Burton and Williams, 1996).For example the difficult access to services may find is cause in the increase in number of users within an area but may also be seen as lack of appropriate alkali and therefore a failure in developer and governments attempt of offering the unavoidable infrastructure for a new development. On the other hand, why does it advertize crime and social segregation or how can it be associated to mental ill ness?When people live in close proximity they are more aware of the existence of neighbours and there are more opportunities to informally interact with your neighbours. The relationship between people living within flats is less gregarious. It also provides casual surveillance and respect for property. For designers and housing providers seeking to advance social equity, and according to the research developed by Elisabeth Burton, higher-density housing such apartments and terraces are the outmatch form of housing, especially if they are developed on derelict land in areas where there are plenty of locally-provided services and facilities (Burton, 2002, pg 558).The extent to which built form influences social problems has therefore been seen as very limited. The confluence of several economic, social, political and environmental reasons results in the creation of social problems. In addition, the weight of the importance of the built form, when fetching into consideration the d ifferent social problems, tend to change from one country to another depending on the perception of the different kind of built form by the population. This perception will always be shaped according to the culture and socialization the individual has experienced. What in some countries is seen as undesiderable form of housing in others is the common norm.In Britain compact city has been proved to be the best option for future urban development if sustainable reasons are taking into account. The promotion of places that make efficient use of available space and environmental resources will lead to the adoption of high-density development. This residential housing has been seen through annals as a reason for the emergence of social problems and people associate this type of built environment to vandalism, crime and social inequality. The introduction of this new model into planning practice will need to be seen together with changes in the population mentality and will meet several difficulties when confronting well rooted ways of thinking. People will have to be ameliorate to accept the change. It will not create additional social problems if it incorporates features that improve peoples quality of life like high standard local services and an easy reach of a range of facilities.This new concept of built form will generate debates and modification in peoples constructed reality beforehand being able to be generally accepted, a shift in peoples attitudes towards the new form of housing. It needs to be an attractive option and it will involve action and investment from government and agencies in order to divorce false presumptions about this kind of built form.