Sustainable Street Design as the Vital Element to Achieve Sustainable Urban Environment

Authors

  • Jothilakshmy Nagammal

Abstract

A Street is a means of access but it is more importantly unique to the place and their culture and
serves as a means of social expression. The aim of this paper is to design quality streets by taking into
consideration local culture, habits and customs making it a three dimensional activity space and not merely a
modernist street grid. As movement of automobiles on the streets increased, it negatively impacted
community life on the streets. Transportation network designs changed the street design and the parking of
vehicles changed the design of buildings. Decentralization, suburban development and also social distancing
were the major impacts of automobile development. Designing for the urban environment became focused
on automobile planning without planning for people and their needs and activities. Different street designs
from history to the modern were analyzed in this paper along with the current planning methods and concept
of New Urbanism. Conclusions are drawn to identify the important design elements for creating the most
livable and vibrant sustainable street. The concept of the street as the vital element of the urban
environment, and as a useful scale for the delivery of urban development towards achieving sustainability is
discussed in this paper. An Urban local street in Chennai city has been take as the study area and has been
analyzed and indicators for a successful street is listed out and context Based Sustainable Street Design
Codes ( CBSSDC) are Formulated with the new planning approach

Published

2020-04-30

Issue

Section

Articles