Citizenship as an input in the assessment of sustainability in architecture and urbanism

Abstract

In the Mediterranean countries, the income ofthe building and city models from the North of Europe, has produce a change in the persons way of living. The traditional courtyard housing, the open and kind squares, the fresh and narrow streets, have been substituted by high buildings, hard concrete urban places and wide avenues. The protection against the environment of the traditional facades has been turned to thin walls and transparent surfaces. The texture of brick, stone or wood is been replaced with metal, plastic and glass. The well-being of the people is affected by aspects like acces, air, light, acoustic and visual contamination, the reduced account of open and green spaces in the city, the inadequate distribution of social activities places or buildings, the traffic, causing the appearance of illnesses like anxiousness or stress. The psychosocial well-being depends on psychological, physics and social factors. In Sustainable Architecture, Urbanism, and Construction, the investigations to define economic and environmental criteria to evaluate the sustainability of products and process, are numerous, and the social criteria studies are almost forget. We have to achieve the main target of offering to the people appropriate environment (cities, buildings and infrastructure) that help to improve the quality of their live, that reduce the negative impacts on the health and on the social, cultural or working activities. To achieve the challenge "Cities for all" and "Sustainable communities", we have to analyse the ways of living and the needs of each social group, from children and their caretaker, aged people, handicapped, immigrants, tourists .... Each of them with different needs but related. In this document we analyse the different social groups, their activities developed in the city and the negative impacts of the urban environment and the influence in the quality of live, to define an assessment methodology of the sustainability in Architecture and Urbanism from social criteria.