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Role of culture in sustainable development and sustainable built environment: a review

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Abstract

The mutual and interdependent link between the economic, social and environmental pillars forms the basis for sustainable development. In recent years, culture is also identified as an essential pillar in achieving sustainable development. However, a comprehensive review of published literature revealed limited studies which provide an overview of culture in sustainable development and the sustainable built environment. This study attempts to provide an overview of culture in sustainable development and the sustainable built environment by reviewing various reports of United Nations, sustainable development models, existing Green Building Rating Systems and published research. A generic set of cultural indicators and their benefits in the sustainable built environment are summarized based on bibliometric and comprehensive literature review. The study reveals several benefits of incorporating cultural elements into building design, such as improved cultural interactions, creating a sense of place, protecting place character, efficient use of energy and resources, creating job opportunities for local people, improved affordability and sustainable behavioral change. The identified generic cultural indicators act as a primary reference to develop context-specific cultural indicators while developing/enhancing building assessment/rating systems. The study outcome would also serve as a vital reference while developing region-specific design policies. The study concludes that consideration of culture as a fourth dimension is essential to accomplish sustainable development. The study recommends further investigation in the research domain to understand, develop and validate region-specific indicators for culture in the sustainable built environment and opens up the scope for future research.

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Source: Bibliometrix)

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Acknowledgements

The authors are incredibly thankful for the support rendered by Ar. Arathi Kanmani and Ar. Niyatha Balan in collecting the case study details. The authors are also grateful to the editor and anonymous reviewers for their constructive and helpful suggestions, which helped to improve the quality of the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Architecture and Planning, NIT Campus P. O., National Institute of Technology Calicut, Kozhikode, Kerala, 673601, India

    Nina Lazar & K. Chithra

Authors
  1. Nina Lazar
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  2. K. Chithra
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Correspondence to Nina Lazar.

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Appendices

Appendix A

See Figs. 15, 16, 17 and 18.

Fig. 15
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Source: Adapted from (Thatcher, 2013)

Three pillars of sustainable development.

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Fig. 16
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Source: Adapted from (UNESCO, Barcelona Cultura and UCLG, 2009)

Triangle of sustainable development.

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figure 17

Source: Adapted from (Adams, 2006)

Interlocking circles of sustainable development.

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Fig. 18
figure 18

Source: Adapted from (Scott Cato, 2009)

Nested circles of sustainable development.

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Appendix B

See Figs. 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24 and 25.

Fig. 19
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Source: Adapted from (New Zealand Ministry for Culture & Heritage, 2006)

Four well-beings of community sustainability.

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figure 20

Source: Adapted from (Nurse, 2006)

Culture as the central pillar.

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Fig. 21
figure 21

Source: Adapted from (UNESCO, Barcelona Cultura and UCLG, 2009)

The new square of sustainable development.

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Source: Adapted from (Institute for Planning and Design, 2009)

Sustainability model, Municipality of Chester.

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Source: Adapted from (City of Grand Forks, 2008)

The stool of sustainable development.

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figure 24

Source: Adapted from (James et al., 2015)

The circles of sustainability.

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Fig. 25
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Source: Adapted from (Dessein et al., 2015)

a Culture in sustainable development, (b) culture for sustainable development, (c) culture as sustainable development.

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Appendix C

See Figs. 26, 27.

Fig. 26
figure 26

Source: Adapted from (Boschi, 1997)

The social, cultural, economic and ecological dimension of sustainability.

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Fig. 27
figure 27

Source: Adapted from (Opoku, 2015)

Role of culture in the sustainable built environment.

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Appendix D

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Lazar, N., Chithra, K. Role of culture in sustainable development and sustainable built environment: a review. Environ Dev Sustain 24, 5991–6031 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10668-021-01691-8

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