In the face of urgent global challenges confronting our cities and regions, effective urban planning has become more important than ever before. We need to establish a foundation for urban design that not only aligns with the targets and indices of sustainable development at a global scale but also empowers local voices and meets local aspirations.
Urban areas confront a multitude of intersecting challenges, including inadequate and substandard basic services, social and public facilities, mobility constraints, urban sprawl, uncoordinated and unplanned development patterns, and the escalating threats posed by climate hazards. Addressing these challenges calls for an integrated approach to planning, one that can be embraced by government bodies, private planning practices, and communities alike.
MY Neighbourhood demonstrates the impact of design interventions across various sectors and spatial dimensions and raises awareness among users. Moreover, it supports the identification and organisation of targets and indicators for city profiling and spatial assessments, thereby enhancing decision-making processes. Above all, MY Neighbourhood is designed to be adaptable, collaborative, and facilitatory, fostering inclusive engagement and collective action.
At UN-Habitat, we recognise the critical importance of a knowledge base that consolidates interconnected principles for urban design. This document reflects our organisation’s mandate and perspective and draws on our extensive global experience. It encapsulates our approach to sustainable neighbourhood planning, providing guidance towards sustainable development while considering the unique contexts and characteristics of different locales.
It is my sincere hope that this publication will serve as a catalyst for the implementation of best practices in urban design. I also hope that MY Neighbourhood will empower stakeholders to actively participate in the transition towards sustainable development, ultimately leading to a better urban environment for all. Together, we can forge a path towards a more inclusive, safe, resilient, and sustainable future for our cities and regions.
Rafael Tuts
Director, Global Solutions Division,
United Nations Human Settlements Programme
A neighborhood is a community, geographically localised within a larger city, town, or rural area, represented by a spatially defined unit, with its own system of functional and social networks.
A good neighborhood provides an enabling environment for an improved quality of life for everyone.
Whilst designing a good neighborhood it is necessary to take a diversity of aspects into account, e.g. social, economic, environmental, mobility, etc. as well as a diversity of urban dimensions, e.g. open public space, building unit, etc. to ensure a holistic and integrated approach to urban design.
Neighbourhood-scale interaction with city-wide systems should be linked to ensure design initiatives can bring a maximum impact for both community and the city.
Driven by the need to translate global, national and local policies and strategies to local planning and design interventions and projects, UN-Habitat’s “My Neighborhood” offers a practical guide to achieve sustainable urban space while contributing to localizing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and implementation of the New Urban Agenda.
UN-Habitat’s ‘Five Principles of Sustainable Neighbourhood Planning’, created in 2014, was used as a starting point. It summarized five key urban planning theories and provided indicators for sustainable neighbourhood design.
“MY Neighbourhood” expands on this work by providing an extended list of key design principles and tips, built from a body of research and project experience, and shows how they are applied to different dimensions of the neighbourhood (not just to a neighbourhood as a whole). “MY Neighbourhood” then links these principles to ensure that they are multi-dimensional and sectorally integrated.
Rather than providing firm recommendations, the urban design principles and tips in “MY Neighbourhood” brings a new perspective to urban design, that views the city as a growing continuum from neighborhood to urban and broader city-region scale.
It does this by grouping principles according to five city-wide objectives (compact, connected, vibrant, inclusive and resilient). Each principle and tip is described using specific examples, or, in some cases, measurable indicators.
The principles and tips within each of the five objectives cover a diversity of spatial indicators such as form, distribution, proximity, diversity, intensity and connectivity.
This facilitates a multidimensional and comprehensive set of principles that tackle a diversity of spatial, social and economic and environmental networks.
“MY Neighborhood” deepens the links to local economy, place identity, inclusivity and climat change, ensuring the adaptability of principles and tips across diverse cultures and regions.