The environmental aspects of `sustainable housing
Transcription
The environmental aspects of `sustainable housing
Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population Pelin Yildiz The Department of Interior Architecture and Environmental Design, Hacettepe University, Turkey, [email protected] In the vision of environmental context with the architectural point of view, there are consequences based on public space in the concept of housing territorial. In the countries with growing population like Turkey the housing concept is one of the most important problems in big metropolis whereas housing properties should be depending on the matter of sustainable considerations regarding the social and cultural aspects of the community living there. The purpose of this work is to make an approach to the sustainable housing design in order to see the reflections of this issue starting from the nearby environment to the city scale with social and cultural considerations. And the purpose of this study is to propose a model for growing cities in the issue of housing under sustainable circumstances with social aspects in the nearby environment. From this point the public space concept is a general common point to be analyzed. The sustainable aspect of housing in social context should bring together the heterogenic public life in a common situation. The environmental point of view mostly depends on the situation of common public access. So in this work the subject will be declared starting with the problem statement with visual representation of the meaning of sustainable housing under the social point of view also with substances one by one. The general body of the paper will constitute analyzes of sustainable housing regions on behalf of architectural, social and cultural point of views. The analyzed samples will be presented on a scientific basis of sustainable quantities those being detected through the phases of sustainable housing values in the international terminology. As the method of this study is making scientific analyzes on some basic sustainable houses, making comparisons between the analyzed works identifying common and different points is required in order to maintain an ideal prototype regarding sustainable housing. This prototype should contain: Sustainable housing under social and cultural aspects, the environmental reflections of this public space as a module, bringing together some different modules regarding environmental public space usage by analyzing the structure of the city planning depending on housing policies, making analyzes between metropolis with growing population on behalf of sustainable housing criteria and public space. The findings and results will put forward the fact that starting from the micro scale of the housing consideration with sustainable features to the mezzo scale which is forming the healthy and adequate type of city planning by growing population on behalf of social public space usage should be identified clearly. A new approach to confront the housing challenge: Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) from Turkey should be identified as a sample. In the conclusions and recommendations part; it should be declared that sustainable housing is an issue in planning big metropolis city map with its cultural and social environmental effects while the context of being a sustainable city is depending on some main basic levels and phases. Starting from the micro scale of the housing considerations through the mezzo scale by planning issues of public life in city, the macro scale is then being formed as a general identification of the city with the reflected image of a city. Introduction Sustainable housing is considered to be a wide symptom in forming the general structure of a city complex. In the aspect of the general definition of a city there are some main parts to define the general structure: Transportation abilities, traffic ways and pedestrian roads Recreation possibilities Common spaces in city centers as landmarks or conjunction points in city life, Housing, collective housing, residential parts, Educational areas Administrative regions and nearby, 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 177 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. Shopping facilities, Zoo and shelters for animals, Agricultural facilities in a sustainable feature in city life etc., Sport facilities These creations are the basis of the general context of a city. All are forming to be as one in order to organize the necessities of man in the living cycle with a wider range of possibilities and surroundings. The city life is the reflection of people with their social arrangements, cultural identifications, living styles, usage of common space by public access in the sense of sharing etc. All the creations are in conjunction with each other whereas the chain is to be formed acting as one that is in relation with each other and interactively affecting each other to be acting as a mechanism. Sustainable housing properties Housing policies have passed through many permutations in the last 50 years, based on differing, even conflicting, approaches that, if we were totally truthful, have not really solved the housing problems faced by the majority of the world's population. The challenge of housing is a simple one: the need for a healthy shelter at an affordable price. In recent years, the concept of sustainability has become central not just in housing policy, but in the consideration of human settlements, employment, infrastructure, transportation and urban services. In fact, the concept of sustainability may be one of the most overused and misunderstood urban policy components in use today (Choguill, 2007). The concept of sustainability should be clarified leading to what is hopefully an operational definition that can be used to measure progress toward this desirable state. The ideas developed are then applied to the field of housing policies, that is, the guidance that governments can give to housing providers, whether they be commercial, public or self-builders, placing housing activity within the overall framework of the sustainability of human settlements and national and international economic activity. In the course of this discussion, certain criteria for sustainability will emerge, including the need for poverty reduction and slum eradication, as well as the broader goal of environmental preservation and the importance of developing channels for making viable finance available. Of course, without improvements in employment opportunity and incomes, whatever is done within the housing policy area is likely to lead to disappointing results (Uzun, Çete, Palancıoğlu, 2009). Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Sub-center Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Educational parts and divisions Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Common space CITY CENTER Recreational facilities Artistic features Housing territorials Sub-center Housing territorials Administrative parts Housing territorials Housing territorials Sub-center Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials Housing territorials public Figure 1: The general structure of city settlements in big cities Sustainable housing is a concept as from the architectural point of view; consisting of 2 main parts: 1 2 Architectural design issues and strategies Social and cultural strategies whereas the relations are then being formed by; Sustainable interior properties Sustainable physical impacts among necessities of the building Sustainable nearby environmental aspects 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 178 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. In order to have an overall approach of the sustainable housing content the main structure should be identified. The module is the house with its interior and outer facilities. The well developed cities as with their sense of image; the big chain based on these materials are the modules acting in a good sense in relation with each other. For example in New York, Toronto, Paris, London, Tokyo etc. the main structure of city is to be formed in a logical and conscious process. The approach of city planning structure form these prototypes has been formed mostly from the acceptance of the city center as the common space for public use but in addition the multicentric abilities of these cities letting them live the environmental publicity with differentiated benefits. The location of housing territorial are divided in three main parts; 1 Individual houses 2 Apartments and blocks 3 Collective housing The subject to be concerned is the environmental issues and the common space usages of the living areas where the social cultural reflections are being percepted mostly. Because house are living areas where the communities are totally feel them as their homeland and both affect the formation of these paces and being effected from the environment in many ways in a multicultural issue. For example in London housing environments are to be perceived mostly with the nearby of the houses as gardens or any private usage and these prototypes are to come together in forming the general city life and this brings a definition of security for city. According to Maliene, Malys (2008) UK cities have been subject to severe social and economic pressures over the past few decades, which have had an uneven spatial impact on the urban environment and have given a rise to the concentration of the most deprived households in the worst urban neighborhoods. In another sense in New York the housing territorial and nearby usage has been divided to some parts. In the peripherical areas of the city houses are to be concerned individually and people are sharing the nearby environments in accordance with the common spaces of each region or cultural section. Sustainable housing properties in Turkey, Ankara The migration from rural to urban areas experienced especially in the industrialization period has led to rapid urbanization and the construction of illegal settlements in many countries. These settlements are usually over-crowded, unsafe, temporary, unhygienic, probably illegal, and mostly located in the suburban areas of cities. The main causes of their constructions are government inefficiencies and lack of effective policies that supply adequate housing for low-income people. As of 2007 more than half of the world's population lives in cities, and one out of three individuals among them lives in inadequate housing conditions. Upgrading squatter settlements that involves physical, social, economic, organizational and environmental improvements to existing slum is widely seen as the most proactive and effective way to achieve this target (Uzun, Çete, Palancıoğlu, 2009). Sustainability, which is presented as a 21st century concept, has been in fact applied since Vitruvius wrote his books and was realized spontaneously in traditional architecture. When “sustainable design and construction strategies for Turkey” are under scrutiny, then it is possible to observe how traditional buildings and settlements in Anatolia were designed in harmony with the local cultural, topographical and climatic conditions and how their design and construction could be integrated in today's design practices. The most important design parameters affecting indoor thermal comfort and energy conservation in building scale are site and orientation of the building, distance between buildings, building form and optical and thermophysical properties of the building envelope. Among these parameters building envelope, as it separates the outdoor and indoor environment, is the most important parameter. All of these parameters are related to each other and the optimum values of each parameter should be determined depending on the values of the others and their optimum combination should be determined according to the climatic characteristic of the region (Manioğlu, Yılmaz, 2007). 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 179 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. Socıal sustaınabılıty The three different interpretations of social sustainability summarized by Chiu (2003) from the extant literature reflect inter‐connections (Table 1). One of the interpretations equates social sustainability with environmental sustainability, in that developments are restricted by social constraints, as by ecological limits (Munro, 1995). The social constraints are set by social norms. If an activity breaches the social limits, it will fail because of people's resistance. Hence for an activity or development to be socially sustainable, it has to keep to specific social relations, customs, structure and value. The thrust of this interpretation is therefore the influence of social values, norms, and social structure on the continuation or progress of development policies, projects or activities. This interpretation is thus development‐oriented as its main concern is social constraints that limit development. According to Rebecca L. H. C. (2004) as a key component of the built environment, housing plays a crucial role in the sustainable development of cities. The primary purpose of housing development is to meet housing needs and to improve housing conditions. Table 1: Interpretations of social sustainability Interpretation 1 Interpretation 2 Interpretation 3 Social constraints limiting development Social pre‐conditions determining distribution of resources and assets within and over generations Maintenance or improvement of the well‐ being of people a. social relations b. customs c. structure d. values a. rules b. values c. preferences d. norms a. increased social cohesion and integrity b. enhanced social stability c. improvement in the quality of d. life Development‐oriented Environment‐oriented People‐oriented When social sustainability is interpreted in terms of social constraints limiting development, cultural factors are significant, as cultural values and customs are often at play to set social norms. The same relationships apply when social sustainability is interpreted as social preconditions necessary to support environmental sustainability. Culture affects the social structure, social values and life styles of a society, and hence the impact of human activities on the natural environment. The relationship between social and cultural sustainability is even more intimate when social sustainability refers to the upkeep or improvement of the well-being of people in this and future generations. This is because such improvements involve, as discussed later, social relations, the distribution of resources and benefits, and quality of life, all of which are culture‐specific (Rebecca L. H. Chiu, 2004). Cultural sustaınabılıty Before canvassing the concepts of cultural sustainability, we need to straighten out the basic concepts of culture. Social relations, social structure, value, norms, customs, rules, the conceptions of equity, and life style are either affected by or part and parcel of a culture. In unpacking the concept of “culture”, Rapoport A (2001) has distinguished two dimensions of elements that determine culture: the social dimension including kinship, family structure, social network, identity, status and so forth; and the ideological dimension encompassing values, ideals, images, norms, standards, expectations, rules, and so forth. This breakdown underscores the influence of social structure in culture, and hence their inseparable relationship. A finer definition for culture should, however, cover three major aspects as summarized from the works of Rapoport A (1969). The first is its aesthetic and artistic aspect. This covers fine arts, music, popular culture, performing arts, and so on. The second aspect refers to the cultivation of mind and spirit. It includes knowledge, belief, religion and ideologies. The third aspect is the anthropological perspective: the way of life; and it pertains to the social aspect of human behavior. It is the totality of the socio‐cultural convention inherent in a specific society. It includes morals, values, laws, codes, customs, traditions, heritage, life styles and the ways we socialize within specific social structures. The above three aspects overlap and influence one another in various ways. 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 180 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. The new housing projects in Ankara regarding the formation of multicentre scale In turkey the approach is to be clarified in the variability of housing territorial and the reflections nearby. The general identification should be made by analyzing the general structure of city formations and the regulations. The climate of the Eastern Anatolian Plateau is relatively similar to desert climate. This region represents the hot and dry area with a high temperature difference between day and night. When evaluating traditional architectural examples, it can be seen that designers were more sensitive and they presented the most suitable design and settlement examples for each climatic region. The concept sustainable development was initially conceived as a term most relevant to macro economic development. It is only more recently that it has been applied to a consideration of the quality of development in human settlements and, by implication, housing. Figure 2: Old city plan, Ankara. Figure 3: Ankara in 50‟s Figure 4: Ankara in 1990 Ankara is growing with a great demand of population in the recent years and this causes the acceleration in housing projects and housing estate whereas the center is then started to being formed by a multicenter area and surrounding. The housing projects are mainly around the regions; Dikmen Valley, Batıkent Housing Estate, Çayyolu Regions with big housing estate unites, İncek, Eryaman (mini cities) etc. These new formations of housing territorial are the new faces of Ankara as the growing population brings new demands and necessities with new evaluations of housing aspects. The housing projects are usually formed on the basis of tall buildings as houses, residences (a new approach of life style), parking facilities, green usage, and playgrounds for children, sporting areas, etc. Figure 5: Ankara sustainable housing planning consideration, housing estate, Batıkent. The present post-disaster housing approach is not responding properly to the interrelated problems of speed, time, economy and no response or under-response. Whenever one type of the problem is taken in hand singularly, it‟s seen the other problems‟ severity increase (Ehrenkrantz, 1989). The many related components of post-disaster housing need to be analyzed as a whole. The development of systems approach has made it possible to take all the components of a system into consideration, understand their relationships, perceive alternative solution and foresee their impact and make adjustments when needed through constantly checking results. Thus, each system is a coherent and indivisible whole that can be distinguished from its surroundings. Moreover this whole is organized since it reflects the dynamic and reciprocal interactions of its various components, and any change in one element will necessarily change others and consequently the entire system. A system cannot be reduced to the sum of its parts, since the latter do not have the same significance when studied in isolation as when seen as contributing to the whole. If we look at each component separately, therefore, we might miss the factors that constitute the system as such. As a result 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 181 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. system approach is determined appropriate to be used as a tool to solve this problem (Limoncu S., Celebioglu B., 2006). Prior to applying the concepts of social sustainability to housing Chiu R.L.H. (2003) defined the tenets of sustainable housing development. She argued that the primary concern of sustainable housing development is to meet the housing needs of the people and not to preserve the environment. However, the environment has to be safeguarded from deteriorating to an extent that it diminishes the ability of future generations to meet their housing needs. Further, sustainable housing should not be merely about meeting basic needs, but should also improve the livability of the living environment, both internal and external. Based on these tenets, she proposes that the social sustainability of housing should include four aspects: 1. 2. 3. 4. the social preconditions conducive to the production and consumption of environmentally sustainable housing; equitable distribution and consumption of housing resources and assets; harmonious social relations within the housing system; an acceptable quality of housing conditions. Following on from the previous discussion about the common areas between social and cultural sustainability, the first and the fourth aspects are also pertinent to cultural sustainability. Table 2 Objectives, goals, resources and activities OBJECTIVES To solve housing problems practically, systematically, urgently, low-costly ecologically. To develop sustainable settlements GOALS -the number of victims according to the disaster scenario -necessary number of emergency shelters, and usage period of them -necessary number of temporary housing, time needed to provide them and usage period of them -the necessary number of permanent houses and time needed to finish them RESOURCES Natural Resources (land, natural building materials, water, solar energy ect.) Manufactured Resources (materials, tools, energy. ect.) Manpower (designers, constructors, Manufacturers, Supervisors, Users) Financial Resources Information Resources (Science, Consents, Experience, Evaluation) Housing ACTIVITIES Stage of Sustainable Emergency Relief Stage of Transforming the Units Into Permanent Houses Table 3 According to (S Limoncu, B Celebioglu, 2006) the problems given below shows that the present post disaster housing approach can not provide the needs of the victims progressively, urgently, economically and it is also inadequate in using country‟s resources efficiently. Furthermore, it is understood that there are not any set strategies regarding the subject, it is always decided after the disaster which prevents the society from being ready against the disasters. Table 3 Problems of the present post–disaster housing approach administrative -legal problems -The government is not ready against the disasters beforehand and has unsustainable policies in place. -Lack of organization / Not having sustainable organization structure Land qualification and location problems Units‟ designapplication-usement problems Substructure problems Sociopsychological problems -Unscientific approaches are followed for the selection of the land and location decisions and the agricultural sustainability is not considered. -The local data is not taken into consideration during the settlement plans. -The present settlements are not analyzed. -Settlements are not designed to be added on the urban life and the social sustainability is not considered. -The ecological conditions are -The units are not suitable for the life style of the victims. -The units are not suitable for the regional and climatic conditions. -The emergency shelters and temporary houses are not sustainable, recyclable; therefore it is not sustainable in terms of users‟ health and comfort. Lighting, water, canalization, flood problems are caused by lack of basic substructure and the sustainability of the substructure is not considered. -The victims are left alone at unhealthy conditions. -The socialcultural-economic life is not considered. 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 182 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. Economical problems -Applying international solutions -The cost of the transportation is high therefore it is seen that economical sustainability is not considered. not taken into consideration during the location of the units. Being unsustainable /not appropriate to be recycled -Not having sustainable politics -Not having sustainable organization structure -Not being sustainable in terms of users‟ health and comfort -Not having sustainable substructure plans. -Not having thought social sustainability. -Not having thought economical sustainability. -Effecting the agricultural sustainability negatively Analysis of social and cultural reflections among sustainable housing properties; ‘toki’ & the urban renewal projects in Ankara The primary purposes of the new approaches in Turkey would be upgrading the unplanned and unhealthy illegal settlements, and thus providing economic, social and cultural improvements to urban areas. The illegal settlement upgrading model of TOKİ is generally implemented to upgrade unplanned and problematic areas, occupied public lands, regions having disaster risks, and cultural and historic areas surrounded by illegal settlements. The project areas are generally located around the city centers where the land is particularly valuable. There are two alternative approaches to implementing the model: 1. 2. demolishing the illegal settlements, constructing new houses in the same area, and allocating them to the right holders, constructing new houses in a different area to transfer the right holders living in the upgrading area (Uzun, Çete, Palancıoğlu, 2009). In the both models, local authorities determine the illegal settlement area where the upgrading project is going to be implemented, and they place an application to TOKİ. (Uzun, Çete, Palancıoğlu, 2009). In the first model, construction of housing units for slum owners and squatters is performed on the same slum area following a land purification process by TOKİ. The slum owners are moved to temporary houses during the upgrading process, and their rents are paid by the local authority. Following completion of the construction, new housing units are given to the entitled right holders in the project area. In the second model, modern housing units for slum owners and squatters are constructed by TOKİ on a vacant area, and entitled right holders move into them. Illegal settlements and their incongruity with city centers have been important issues in Turkey especially since the 1950s. A model for solving slum/slum issues were developed by the Turkish Housing Development Administration (TOKİ) in 2003. The primary purpose of the model is to upgrade illegal settlements through demolishing them and constructing new residential units in the same or different areas. In this context, TOKİ has implemented the model in cooperation with local authorities in several cities throughout Turkey. In a similar manner, the countries trying to improve conditions of their illegal settlement areas could also benefit from the model. A slum upgrading project: Erzincan-Çarşı Quarter example (TOKİ, 2007), (Uzun, Çete, Palancıoğlu, 2009). 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 183 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. Figure 6: A slum upgrading project: Erzincan-Çarşı Figure 7: The location of the valley in Ankara Quarter example (TOKİ, 2007) Dikmen Valley is another project to be concerned in the same way. It is located between two densely populated housing areas, Çankaya and Dikmen, which are in Ankara's southern urban development zones. It starts almost from the city centre, Kızılay, and extends to the forested areas in the southern city limits. The valley has been designated a natural conservation area in all urban development plans. Ankara metropolitan Area Planning Bureau are the names of the urban development plans that were legally approved for the development of Ankara between 1933–1982 as it is one of the important air circulation corridors and water basins of Ankara (Devecigil, 2007). Figure 8: TOKİ model of illegal settlement upgrading by (TOKİ, 2007) Figure 9: Dikmen Valley in 1989: Slum houses surrounded authorized housing. (personal archive of K. Özdemir) According to Devecigil (2007) the slum development process in the valley started after the 1960s and the number of slum units reached 1,916 with nearly 10,000 inhabitants in 20 years. After the 1980s, the valley became an area for urgent intervention due to the prevailing air pollution and green area problems of Ankara. In 1984, the Greater Ankara Municipality (GAM) introduced the Dikmen Stream Green Area Project, which aimed to relocate the slum owners into another part of the city and to transform the valley into an urban park. This project could not be implemented because of high expropriation costs and opposition from the slum settlers. It is very important in Turkish planning experience because it has become the most popular model proposed for transforming informal settlements in Turkey. It is an important case for the sustainability– 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 184 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. livability debate since it shows the obstacles encountered when the interests of actors are in contradiction to the larger interests of sustainability. The urban decision-making process in Turkey is following a top-down, hierarchical, and expert-driven structure. The urban legislation allows citizen participation after the plans are prepared (Günay, 1992). Environmental issues have been more or less addressed in most of the urban development plans. There is an attempt to include the principles of sustainable development in urban plans and projects at their initial development stages. However, reaching the goals of urban development plans in practice has been difficult due to the developments taking place outside the legal and planned context as well as the plan amendments leading to increases in construction density. The Dikmen Valley case points out the difficulty of bringing together the contested visions of the urban actors to promote sustainability, especially when the actors in question do not have any perspective of urban sustainability (Devecigil, 2007). During the interviews, the right-holders who were asked about the meaning of urban sustainability stated that they did not hear the concept “sustainability” and they have no idea what it is. On the contrary, the professionals interviewed were fully aware of the debates, especially referring to the balance to be established between economical, environmental and socio-cultural interests. There is a continuing struggle between the urban actors in terms of realizing environmental, economic and socio-cultural targets. This struggle exists between the urban actors, and also within them. In the Turkish urban development context, searching for a balance between economic development and environmental preservation has been the issue of the technical specialists, academia or NGOs, but such an attempt could not be extended to the community level. Besides, their involvement is dependent on the decision-makers' willingness to include them. Results and conclusions The urban practices in Turkey have been evolving as a bargaining process that is defined and redefined according to the actions of the actors and tend to end up with the sacrifice of the environmental targets. The current situation of Dikmen Valley is a good example of the gap between the environmental protection goal set at the beginning and the outcome that changed due to relations of the urban actors. The technical level, which has no power at all, determined the sustainability targets; whereas the political level determined the level of implementing these targets establishing coalitions with other groups. In Dikmen Valley a relatively livable and modern environment was created for the slum inhabitants of the first and second implementation zones at the level of a participatory decision-making mechanism, but Dikmen Valley has already lost its air corridor function for Ankara city (Devecigil, 2007). According to official documents, urban sustainability was included on the Turkish agenda from the 1990s. The establishment of the Ministry of Environment in 1991 was a crucial step towards setting up environmental standards in accordance with international agreements. As an impact of the Rio Conference and Agenda 21, the sustainable development concept has been integrated into national development plans. The second Habitat conference led to the preparation of the Turkish National Action Plan for sustainable urban settlements with the participation of a wide range of groups. The last step taken in this context was the National Environmental Action Plan prepared in 1998. There have been limited practices in the context of sustainability such as several Local Agenda 21 actions in several cities. The urban question in reaching overall sustainability in Turkey has been revolving around how to overcome the problems created by the informal settlements (DPT, 1992). In Turkey the prototype of creating sustainable housing abilities should be under the affect of main reflections regarding cultural and social necessities, adaptive abilities and behaviors and livable surroundings. The projects applied to form the basis of a sustainable environment in Ankara shows that the habitants living in the area nearby has been carried to residential availabilities in parallel with the similar standards of their general expectations. Social and cultural life style in the nearby environments of regions in Ankara has been passed through a great transformation whereas the environment has gained a value by the financial facade. This situation may seem interesting and enlighten the future projects. But the most important approach should be along with the preservation of identity, culture, and image of the city. Transformation processes like urban renewal projects in the city context should be handled very carefully while one of the most important symptoms in city is its image. The image of a city is being formed among 2013 Copyright remains with authors. First published by Eduserv Group Publishing Division, UK, 2013 185 Yildiz, P. (2013) The environmental aspects of ‘sustainable housing properties’ in big cities with growing population. International Journal of Sustainable Human Development, 1(4), 177-187. very long periods and cultural developments. It is not easy to carry the structure of a residential area or region to another image only by the addition of modern building styles. The sustainable feature of the current condition has to be evaluated first; the current data, elements to be preserved should be identified; then the changes, extractions and additions should be applied according to main findings. The respect to the typologies to be preserved should be carefully analyzed and a new environment then could be formed. Whenever this symptom is neglected then a very successful transformation project in a chosen region may fail with the result of an inadequate application according to the fact „human behavior‟. The culture, traditions, the social public share are factors to be preserved and to be carried widely in a delicate sense while building the new structure of the new living space. This would capture the most important symptom of the sustainable housing in a social and cultural context. Otherwise it would be a new living area with only calculating the problem solving of residential necessities. References Choguill, C.L. (2007) The search for policies to support sustainable housing. Habitat International.Volume 31, Issue 1 Chiu, R.L.H. (2003) Sustainable Development, Social Sustainability and Housing Development: The Experience of Hong Kong., in FORREST, R. and Lee, J.(eds) Housing and Social Change: East‐West perspectives. Routledge, London. Clark, M. (2000) Mainstreaming environmental innovation Town Country Plans. Domestic Futures and Sustainable Residential Development. 69 (7/8) Futures Volume 33, Issue 10, December 2001, Çete M., Palancioğlu, H.M., Uzun, B. 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