Social Sustainability Assessment of Neighborhood Design: A Comparative Study in Nablus City Based on Multiplicity and Singularity

Abstract

This paper assesses the potential of multiplicity in the housing environment for achieving social sustainability compared to singularity. For this purpose, a neighborhood assessment framework was developed to cover three values of social sustainability, namely, stability, continuity, and fairness, as well as several factors related to each value. Two cases were chosen from the neighborhoods in the city of Nablus: Type (1) as an example of multiplicity, and type (2) as an example of singularity. The research data were collected through an architectural survey on the features of both types of neighborhoods, and analyzed in details. On this basis, the two types of neighborhoods were compared based on the said values. The results show that the values of sustainability increase in type (2) at the level of the single building, while growing in type (1) at the level of the residential neighborhood. Multiplicity is a high-potential approach for achieving social sustainability, if the design of the residential buildings caters to people’s needs and wants. In addition, several suggestions were made for improving the neighborhood design in Palestine based on multiplicity.