Design for Sustainable Urban Futures

We live in the Anthropocene Era. Change is exponential. Design and the impact of design is everywhere around us. Human beings are a force shaping the planet's geology, ecosystems, and weather. Our times are often described as volatile, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous (VUCA). Products and services are developed faster, hold a shorter shelf-life disrupted by new offerings, and exist in the wider environment with existential challenges such as climate change and sustainability. What specific value sets embedded within product and service innovation processes help or hinder the achievement of long term sustainable development goals? Rapid change contrasted to relatively stable times, can be confusing and may catch many unprepared. Ways of designing that until recently worked, now are questioned. While speeding up the development cycle can solve short term problems, rapid prototyping alone does not guarantee alignment with long term goals. Thus, within dynamic and rapidly changing environments where long term goals matter, designers need new paths forward and perspectives to shape sustainable product and service innovations. Design that considers the complexity of sustainable lifestyles differs from the development products and services that are indifferent to local contexts. For one, societal problems situated in context require multiple perspectives to inform processes. Yet commonly taught human-centered design processes can easily default to a narrow version of customer-centered design that ignores varied contexts and values. Under time pressure, designers' focus can default to customer needs, ignoring the richer perspectives that explore what it means to be human and to lead a meaningful community life.

In the era of globalisation in which serious environmental problems are threatening cities and their inhabitants, as cultural integrity is constantly under attack and many cities lack socially inclusive and responsive environments, there is an urgent need for a radical shift towards a holistic strategy for sustainable urbanism combining ecological sustainability and socio-cultural sustainability. This calls for sensitivity to the traditional urbanism and impact of global ideas, practices, and technologies on local social and cultural practices both at the city scale and architecture scale. In line with these, this chapter aims to establish an environ- mentally sound and human friendly framework for sustainable urbanism in future cities. In this context, the study firstly provides a conceptual understanding of sustainable urbanism and a critical review of its philosophical and practical framework; secondly, it provides a critical assessment of contemporary approaches to sustainable urbanism; thirdly, the chapter analyses the traditional Turkish (Ottoman) city which provides valuable clues for sustainable development, and discusses possible research directions that could help promote the concept of sustainability in the urban environment of future cities.