Human Sustainable Urbanism: In Pursuit of Ecological and Social-Cultural Sustainability

Abstract

At a time of uncontrolled globalization, there is an urgent need for a radical shift towards a holistic strategy for sustainable urbanism. This calls for sensitivity to the traditional urbanism and impact of global ideas, practices and technologies on local social and cultural practices. In line with these, this chapter aims to establish an environmentally sound and human friendly framework for sustainable urbanism. The study firstly provides a conceptual understanding of sustainable urbanism; secondly, it assesses contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; and finally, the paper analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city which provides valuable clues for human sustainable urbanism. 2012 Published by Elsevier B. V. Selection and/or under responsibility of Centre for Environment-Behaviour Studies(cE-Bs), Faculty of Architecture, Planning & Surveying, Universiti Teknologi MARA, Malaysia