Evaluation of Design Sustainability

By 2050, the proportion of people living in towns and cities in Austria will have risen to 70% – driven by economic development, the megatrend of urbanisation is posing significant urban planning and social challenges. Our high-definition spatial forecasting tool helps towns and service providers to meet these challenges head-on by proactively designing flourishing living spaces tailored to future needs. It is not just a matter of developing these spaces in an environmentally, economically and socially sustainable fashion – at its heart, it is also a question of the form that they can take in order to make them sustainable.

Using evaluation criteria based on examples of system, field and gestalt theory, design sustainability opens up opportunities to define the quality of sustainable spaces on various scales (building, street, square and neighbourhood), which can then be assessed using quantitative and semi-quantitative methods. This puts the focus on qualitative aspects of specific spatial structures, alongside the quantitative analysis that has been used to date. As such, design sustainability represents a new angle from which desirable features of spatial development, such as resilience, can be identified and safeguarded moving forward. The aim is to trigger and ensure the long-term durability of spatial structures, allowing them to be used – thanks to their design – in a climate-friendly, socially sustainable manner that conserves both resources and energy in the long run, and also preserves long-term economic benefits.

Publication: Gestalterische Nachhaltigkeit Ein Plädoyer für die Berücksichtigung der räumlichen Gestalt im Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurs – Konzeptuelle Betrachtungen und ein erster Anwendungsbericht (Design sustainability: an appeal for consideration of spatial design in the sustainability discourse – conceptual observations and a preliminary application report; German only)