Vincent Chua, a sociologist at the Department of Sociology of National University Singapore, writes about cities as places of great social diversity characterized by the coexistence of different groups who do not always mingle with each other. He writes about the emergence of a class divide in Singapore in terms of the network segregation that has occurred along the lines of education and housing. He proposes three ways to create an inclusive society. First, the establishment of common frames of reference that unite diverse groups. Second, the promotion of voluntary associational life to enhance social capital. And third, the active building of personal communities based on the principles of diversity that foster, at the collective level, a greater sense of belonging.
Chong Keng Hua, Ha Tshui Mum and To Kien from the Social Urban Research Groupe at Singapore University of Technology & Design (SUTD) and Yuen Chau, SUTD, share about how an inclusive smart community can be achieved through two strategies: social integration and enabling community. The former prioritizes and offers place‐making and place‐keeping opportunities to the marginalized groups, thereby improving wellbeing for all; the latter blends Big Data and Thick Data into the generative co‐creating process, and through online‐offline engagement platforms encourages self‐initiation by the community themselves. They envision that such ‘Community Enabling Framework’ could bring about cohesiveness amidst diversity, and social resilience in time of crisis.
Ian Dickenson, Principal at Lorcan O'Herlihy Architects [LOHA] in Los Angeles, recounts insights gleaned during ongoing community‐led design work the firm has been engaged with in Detroit – a post‐industrial city significantly affected by systemic changes in global production, by subsequent depopulation, disinvestment, and policies that marginalized vast portions of the population. Ranging from large community framework plans to stand‐alone structures the firm has been engaged in, LOHA present contextually driven responses at a variety of scales. The author advocates the importance of collective mentality, active participation, and sharing of environments – as joint resource and responsibility to actively define and maintain both as physical and ideological space. Based on conclusions from community workshops, focus group meetings, and feedback sessions, design strategies, programming initiatives, and policy recommendations were developed to nurture an inclusive revitalization of exemplary urban neighbourhoods that could as well set an example for growing cities.
Florian Heinzelmann and Daliana Suryawinata from SHAU Architects share about their design agenda for Indonesian cities. They consider architecture as an impactful agency to enable urban reciprocal practices, forms, and processes as important elements contributing to an open city. They share about a number of projects, ranging from public spaces to empower local communities, micro‐libraries to respond to high illiteracy rates but to also accommodate multiple other community‐driven activities, and in parts participatory housing projects embracing the informal kampong spirit for vertical, multiprogrammatic communalities.
Gerald Kössl, a sociologist and housing researcher at the Austrian Federation of Limited‐Profit Housing Associations, discusses the role and our understanding of markets in the context of housing governance and social inclusion. His contribution shows how housing can both foster social inclusion but also act as a motor of exclusion and inequality, as has been the case with the growing shortage of affordable housing across Europe and many other cities worldwide. He draws on the case of Vienna's housing market and the role of limited‐profit housing associations within it to evidence the societal benefits of an economic (housing) model where cost recovery, circularity of investments, and long‐term thinking are favoured over profit maximization, rent extraction, and short‐termism.
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