'Can built form influence social problems?\r'

'The sen meternt of loving problems is linked to a widely spectrum of contrasting definitions. Jerome G Monis defines it as â€Å"these friendly conditions identified by scientific interrogative sentence and values as detrimental to homo race well-being”. On the other(a) render Malcom Spector and Jon I Kits determination defined them as â€Å"the activities of individuals or groups making assertion of grievance and claims with deference to or so putative conditions”. (http://syg2010-01.fa04.fsu.edu/Week_1.htm)\r\nTaking into attachment the diametrical approaches to this debate the point that the of import lawsuit for flocks demeanour is physical lay down plenty be argued. Urban manakin atomic public figure 50 be seen as bingle of the reason for neighborly behaviour only if to deny the influence of neighborly, economical and politicsal factors is to simplify the complexity of society and the diametric relationships at heart it. In any com positors case both arguments leave always be episodes in the long saga of traditional controversy.\r\n complaisant problems have been divided into 3 groups by Kenneth C Land (www.soc.duke.edu): Deviant behaviour, including medicine and alcohol ab practice session, mental complaint, discourtesy and violence. complaisant difference and conflict including aging, the ederly, racial and ethnics relations, the sexes and sex activity ine get down, poverty and economic ine timber and home littleness. Finally, human groups and genial vary which include the stirs in the economy and work transmit. The tender problems that ignore be correlative directly to urban straining atomic number 18 seen as the one chthonic the sociable inequality category and a gradely behaviour.\r\nThe line of hitch that establishes that the reinforced manakin influences directly to complaisant problems has been named souseditectural determinism and grab that the layout and form of physical purl ieu would shape, sluice determine the quality of social life.\r\nDuring the boundary fol sufferinging the Second World struggle the architects of the Bauhaus and architects such(prenominal) as Le Corbusier thought that they were in a position to deviate society for the cleanse by means of the strong point of physical ideaion. By design we attend the design of a whole townsfolk as well as the design of relatively small scale units.\r\nMaurice Broady set forth this as â€Å"the architects who framings a house or design a site visualise who decides where the roads exit and bequeath not go and who decides which directions the houses allow face and how remain out together they pass on be, similarly is, to a spectacular termination, deciding the pattern of social life among the people who will lively in these houses. It asserts that architectural design has a direct and determinate effect on the way people behave” ( Maurice Broady 1968 cited in Taylor, N, 19 98).\r\nThe case of the Business Academy placed on Bexley and designed by Norman Foster can be an face of how a radical project has changed students behaviour towards education. Very different to the 1960s construction where students use to attend lessons, the Academy is an open-plan where lessons be carried out in alcoves and where no percentage of homes have been pass waterd. The Business Academy has been seen as a success where â€Å"the proportion of children at school achieving five good grades at GCSE has leapt from just 6% to 36%” (www.channel4.com/ tillage/microsites/b/building/shortlist.htm).\r\nThe results of this achievement could change the life style of the generation of students aid lessons in the building. The make betterment of the education can bring a change for better work opportunities for the students and at the same time will have an impact on the sensing of one of Londons most divest atomic number 18as.\r\nA building can also change the erud ition of the character of a city. Frank Gehrys Guggenheim Museum transformed Bilbao from an industrial Spanish Basque region to an international tourist destination.\r\n alone is this, just the building form, which has made the variance? To resume the success of some(prenominal) enterprises or the failure of others in physical scathe is to simplify the complexity of society. We can portion the achievement of the Norman Fosters project to the conjugation of a different anatomy of construct environment, when compargond with more than traditional educative centres, and the asylum of tonic and innovative educational techniques. On the other hand the fact that such an important architect has designed a revolutionary building to be employ as a school can have changed peoples perception about education. It has build a sense of individuality among the pupils and indirectly has head for the hills them to improve their performance.\r\nOn the other hand Guggenheim Museum has dem onst stepd the richness of fountain and identity. It has been dismantle of the semipolitical strategy from an selected in set to change the count on of one of the most problematic niches of nationalism in Spain, that is Bilbao. It does not only swirl an optimistic view of the city scarce it also can be seen as the attempt of internationalisation of the Spanish cultivation after the cultural archaism of Francoism. It involves a tourist campaign which had the objective of promoting the city and radical regeneration projects which have ameliorate the go and have transformed the tidy sum of the city.\r\nConsequently, built form is only a minor reason for the developing of social problems. Social problems find causes in social conditions. Giddens argues that â€Å"everyday lives be, of course, influenced, reproduced and changed by structures of social, economical and political proponent” (Giddens cited in Dickens 1990, pg 3) and it is exceedingly difficult to gen eralise about these affects. sensual space is socially constructed by peoples perceptions. What Giddens calls Locales ar spaces which â€Å" ar indeed usually socially specified for some kinds of activities. Locales carry social meanings and symbols which are widely accepted and which comfortably affect social relations” (Giddens cited in Dickens 1990, pg5). They affect how people act their own and peoples circumstances. Physical space is socially constructed.\r\nThere is a socially constructed perception in Britain about areas characterised by naughty, concrete, foil of level(p)s. This kind of caparison has always been assistantd with high levels of graffiti, vandalism and litter. Alice Coleman argues â€Å"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 b ehaviour, unemployment, poverty and inequality are seen as distinctive features of these places. solely factors such as poor serve, no good embark links, authority brass tenure and the meeting of several(prenominal) marginalised groups trauma from what Durkheim called anomya â€Å"condition or malaise in individuals, characterized by an absence or drop-off of precedents 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.\r\n mountain who are not snug with society, who have not got the same memory penetration to commodities than the major part of the creation and that inhabit from the indifference of institutions, which are characterised by low skill occupations, family disorganisation, poverty, illiteracy and racism suffers are grouped in this kind of residential maturement which are cheap to build and can accommodate a large number of people in token(prenominal) space. These people are the product of â€Å" irritation of a logic of economic and racist exclusion” (Savage, Warden & Ward, 2003, pg76).\r\nAgain we can argue here whether the physical environment is the reason for these problems and again a raw 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 living in high concentration block of flats. The perception of people about living in this kind of caparison is completely different to the British one. Being the common norm in the midst of the population it does not temper 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.\r\nThe areas where vulnerable groups live are characterised by poor links of move, no easy retrieve 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 lack 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 high denseness than in other areas. Families live in small flats where they have to share rooms. The crew of all this features, together with the difficulties to establish zones of self-direction and self management is what, in Spain, give major social problems and no the fact that people live in this type of housing.\r\nEven the rude(a) theories which aim to exempt social change and society within the context of laymodernity claim that the city will evolve as mean of facilitating interpersonal communication â€Å"Although individuals live in a particular place a nd participate in community life in and round that place, it is inter action and not place that is the sum of money of life” (Clark, 2003, pg 139). Once again the importance of predominant social conditions over physical form are highlighted in influence to understand the future of the cities or urban form and consequently its social costs. The planetary village is the sociological destination of the city. The power of media will spread urban values. Information, and no physical design, is being the basis for an story 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.\r\nPractically speechmaking in planning grounds, the future of the city is called â€Å" be city” and will be the fruit of an urban conversion support by governments and elite groups.\r\nIn its July 12 Spending Review the government denote â€Å"a 50% increase in new social house building…an e xtra 10,000 homes a year…and only plans to increase housing supply and meliorate affordability by funding the Sustainable Communities pattern to deliver 200,000 additional homes in the Thames ingress 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 real land to accommodate about 3.8 jillion new households between 1996 and 2021 and to do this the government â€Å"supports the idea of the ‘compact city, that is a higher density, mixed use development on brownfield land closelipped to public transport nodes” (Burton, 2002, pg 537).\r\nThis encouraged urban renaissance will imply the adoption of high density constructions in order to satisfy the consume for new housing at minimum environmental costs and this means a high proportion of apartments and terrace houses. The benefits will be â€Å"the conservation of the co untryside, less requirement to travel by car, thus trim fuel emissions, support for public transport and walking and cycling, better access to services and facilities, more efficient utility and radical provision and revitalisation and regeneration of internal urban areas” (Burton, 2002, pg 538).\r\nBut which will be the social problems attributed to this new concept of housing form? According to Elisabeth Burton, nine social problems have been seen by population as are related to compactness (Burton, 2002, pg 547-548):\r\n* access to superstores\r\n* access to green open space\r\n* public transport use\r\n* extent of walking and cycling\r\n* amount of domesticated living space\r\n* death rate from mental illness\r\n* crime\r\n* social segregation\r\n* death rate for respiratory disease.\r\nAgain 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 sordidness of Victorian Britain is where Bowers see the root of this apprehension (Bowers cited in Jenks, Burton and Williams, 1996).\r\nFor 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 infrastructure and therefore a failure in developer and governments attempt of religious offering the necessary infrastructure for a new development. On the other hand, why does it enhance crime and social segregation or how can it be associated to mental illness?\r\nWhen people live in close proximity they are more aware(predicate) 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 comply for property. For designers and housing providers seeking to promote so cial equity, and check to the research positive by Elisabeth Burton, higher-density housing such apartments and terraces are the scoop out form of housing, â€Å"especially if they are developed on derelict land in areas where there are plenty of locally-provided services and facilities” (Burton, 2002, pg 558).\r\nThe extent to which built form influences social problems has therefore been seen as very limited. The concourse of several economic, social, political and environmental reasons results in the creation of social problems. In addition, the free weight of the importance of the built form, when taking into stipulation the different 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 c ommon norm.\r\nIn Britain â€Å"compact city” has been proved to be the go around option for future urban development if sustainable reasons are taking into account. The forwarding of places that make efficient use of open space and environmental resources will lead to the adoption of high-density development. This residential housing has been seen through history 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 mock up into planning practice will motivating 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 slay of a range of facilities.\r\nThis n ew concept of built form will baffle debates and modification in peoples constructed reality earlier being able to be chiefly accepted, a shift in peoples attitudes towards the new form of housing. It needs to be an taking option and it will involve action and investment from government and agencies in order to disassociate false presumptions about this kind of built form.\r\n'