5.4. Social space

Figure 5.3Examples of NBS: left –intensive green roof37, right –green belt38

Usually effective functioning of NBS requires holistic approach using all types of NBS to ensure that they create together green infrastructure that supports a city in a systematic way. Therefore, multilevel thinking is required in that aspect for planning a city that will adapt to climate change and its vulnerability to extreme weather events will be reduced.

NBS play a significant role especially in case of residential areas due to the fact that in these parts of cities people have the most frequent contact with them. Benefits from NBS may cover different ecosystem services, including regulating services like air quality improvement, heat stress mitigation and pollination, supporting services like water cycle and photosynthesis, or cultural services like esthetical values and recreation area. All of them highly contribute to better standards of residential areas.

5.4. Socialspace

NBS very often are located in public spaces which serve final crucial element of integrated city which is a social space. Well-designed, accessible and useful public places are the basic environment of social life and an indispensable component of sustainable urban structures. Their optimal functioning requires high-quality equipment and generating social activity, and this can be achieved thanks to appropriate design standards and efficient management. The basic standards include devices and equipment that guarantee availability of space for seniors, children, parents with small children and other groups of users. This holistic approach considering many social groups was a basis for the concept of universal design.

Universal design (also known as Design for All) is an intervention into environments, products, and services that aims to ensure that anyone, including future generations, can participate in social, economic, cultural, and leisure activities with equal opportunities, regardless of age, gender, capacity, or cultural background. Because human beings are diverse, universal

37 Source: https://www.urbangreenbluegrids.com/measures/green-roofs/intensive-green-roofs/ 38 Source: https://planningsustainable.weebly.com/green-belts-and-greenways.html

design should be adopted in all sectors because everyone has the desire, need, and right to be autonomous and choose their own lifestyle without confronting physical or social constraints. According to the Design for All Foundation there are a few characteristics that should be considered when following universal design: respectful, safe, healthy, functional, comprehensible, sustainable, affordable and appealing.

Following these rules can help to make a public space really social and livable. That is the responsibility of local authorities to ensure such high quality of public space. In highly developed countries, safety, comfort and aesthetics of public spaces are sometimes considered as a criteria for assessing local government and its effectiveness.

The interface between public and private space is of key importance for the development of local, small-scale entrepreneurship which complete residential neighborhoods (as described above in accessibility standards for key services). Especially the ground floors of buildings adjacent to streets and squares have a great activation potential, as long as safe and convenient access to the property is ensured. While upper floors are denominated for residential purposes, ground levels are suitable for basic everyday use functions. Calm traffic and wide pavements make it possible to introduce some services into the area of public space, e.g. in the form of very popular gastronomic gardens. Despite public space predesigned for social activity, also other public spaces (like transportation area) can be used temporary for different purposes for example during social events or in case of recent time to reduce social congestion due to COVID-19 pandemic. Having such solution within residential neighborhood stimulate urban livability (Figure 1.4).

Figure 5.4Examples of social spaces: left –street with temporary gastronomic garden39

The return to traditional perimeter blocks (traditional urban forms often in a shape of regular squares or rectangles; popular until the beginning of 20th century) not only results in the creation of well-defined street and square interiors, but also enables the creation of semiprivate courtyards and yards, which, although open to outsiders, are mainly used by residents. The sense of belonging in such places is shaped by spatial form and, despite the lack of physical barriers to entry, the division between the private and public domains remains clear. The interiors of the perimeters are therefore an ideal environment for the maturation of neighborhood communities; an informally supervised place for play, rest and intergenerational integration.

Discussing social space, it is important to adapt well to the existing structures, architectural substance, infrastructure, greenery and forms of human activity. In many cases that refers to local cultural heritage, which brings identity to the community. The planning and design should reflect local cultural heritage and landscape memory and history. Historic buildings should be preserved under a classified protection system. Further, the plan should consider how to revitalize traditional cultures and to provide space for traditional craftsmanship, if possible. New buildings must comply with provisions on the preservation of regional history and must be in harmony with the site’s important cultural heritage if any [5].