A contribution to the structural model of autonomous sustainable neighbourhoods: new socio-economical basis for sustainable urban planning

Urban researchers have acknowledged that current urban design tools do not sufficiently take into account the complexity of various social factors (integration of the community, local economy, identity of the community, etc.) into the implementation processes of new (sustainable) urban areas. Since the best practices of successful sustainable neighbourhoods are too little known and are not taken into account in urban design tools, because there is no existing comparative analysis of best practices that would provide common guidelines for the implementation of new autonomous sustainable neighbourhoods (ASN), the central objective of the article focuses on creating an interdisciplinary structure for a holistic model of autonomous sustainable neighbourhoods. The aim of the article is to create a framework of strategic urban sustainability goals that derives from “good examples” of sustainable neighbourhoods and that could represent a new mode of interdisciplinary urban planning, emphasizing the importance of the socio-economic factors in neighbourhood modelling. The article will try to identify a concrete scheme of sustainable elements, which could facilitate the creation of new sustainable districts in cities (with due regard to local specifics). The structural model of autonomous sustainable neighbourhoods could be suitable as a tool for the implementation of strategic urban sustainability goals and might upgrade existing sustainable urban planning tools. The proposed model, which is based on a comparative analysis of the best practices of sustainable neighbourhoods in Europe, is formed and structured by “the four pillars of urban sustainability” (Energy pillar and natural resources, Sustainable Transport, Socio-economic balance, and Sustainable urban design elements). Each of the “pillars” incorporates several “strategic urban sustainability goals”.