This research proposes to determine the ten major social and psychological needs of a neighborhood scale community, and develop an assessment model that will provide designers and developers with insight into which New Urbanist principles should be applied, and to what extent application should occur, to better address the community's social and psychological needs.Failure of designers to consider adequately the psychological and social needs of groups of individuals has brought about consequences detrimental to the long-term livelihood of communities. The inability of a community to meet the needs of its inhabitants creates a state of discontent and "disconnect" among residents, thereby encouraging residents to leave their current community and relocate (sprawl) elsewhere in order to try and attain satisfaction. Attempts at addressing the discontent often focus on improving "quality of life" through the inclusion of open space, pedestrian-oriented streets, and other amenities. Often times, these physical design solutions gloss over, or ignore entirely, the community's psychological and social needs.Social and psychological factors are integral to a community's well being. According to the concepts of holism and wellness, "health" is gauged by how well individuals measure up in all dimensions of needs: physical, emotional, social, occupational, intellectual, and spiritual. (Robbins, Powers, and Burgess 1991) From the reverse perspective, individuals who have deficiencies in one or more dimensions can be considered "unhealthy." The wellness concept carries over from the individual to our built environments: communities that fail to inclusively meet the needs of their residents can be considered "unhealthy," or incomplete, from a wellness perspective.To remedy the incompleteness, designers and developers must focus on quality infill development that addresses deficiencies in a community, thereby bringing the community closer to a wellness balance. Effective evaluation and appropriate application of proposed infill developments are critical to the suitability of the solutions. In short, only by carefully considering the problems in our communities will designers and developers generate appropriate solutions that set our existing communities along the path to health, and solve the linked problems of disconnect, placelessness, and sprawl. / Department of Landscape Architecture
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:BSU/oai:cardinalscholar.bsu.edu:handle/187133 |
| Date | January 2001 |
| Creators | McCarley, William J. |
| Contributors | Cruz, German T. |
| Source Sets | Ball State University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Format | xiv, 184 leaves : col. ill., col. maps ; 28 cm. |
| Source | Virtual Press |
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