Urban kinaesthetic heritage and production of social sustainability

Abstract

The paper addresses the current need for expanding ways to understand and research aspects of urban sustainability, which are related to the social environment. Sustainability of living historic cities is related to, among other factors, their socio-spatial structure and relationships. For past urban contexts, these mostly intangible characteristics can be studied by analyses of the material aspects of urban space, which have been shaped over the long term. Shifting our focus from the preserved buildings and collections of finds onto space and spatial configurations in their own right may bring new revelations about the dynamics of the urban layouts, street networks and sensory environment.Urban streets and open spaces, specifically, may be analysed as a record of past preferences for movement patterns that are part of the sensory environment in each settlement. In this paper, urban kinesthetics are viewed as a component of social traditions and cultural heritage, and it is analysed how materially constituted networks and characteristics of the sensory environment may have contributed to the long-term social sustainability of urban settlements.As case studies, the East African towns of Mombasa, Kenya and Mozambique Island, Mozambique, represent living historical towns and sites of cultural heritage, and symbolise urban growth on a historical background reaching to the precolonial era. It is shown how the built environment of these towns have affected capacity for movement in the urban space and how movement was channelled in the urban environment. It is argued that while it is more common to understand urban architectural heritage as a collection of preserved buildings with a certain set of characteristics, adding a spatial dimension to archaeological interpretations of the built environment can aid producing relevant considerations for shaping the future of cities.