Quality design can strengthen civic engagement and build social capital, which helps communities prosper. Better-designed neighbourhoods can contribute to an increased sense of shared identity, enrich community life, foster social cohesion, and help people live better together. Public buildings and spaces with exemplary design can stimulate social interactions and in turn aid in the integration and expression of multiple communities. Besides its esthetic quality, a public project's true value is thus evaluated based on its usage quality.* The latter is intrinsically linked to a sense of equity, equality and inclusion.
How can design and architecture help improve equity, diversity and inclusion?
By responding to user needs equitably
- Designing flexible, adaptable spaces that allow for mixed uses and functions and can be easily embraced by diverse user groups.
- Responding to societal needs that are ignored or neglected; e.g., those of vulnerable, marginalized and underrepresented people.
By making the site accessible to as many people as possible
- Responding to the expectations and needs of multiple generations and household types (e.g., young children, families, seniors).
- Deploying best practices in universal design, to ensure that users enjoy barrier- and risk-free access to and movement within the site.
- Developing layout and wayfinding solutions that enable universally perceptible navigation.
- Simplifying access to services, including with respect to information and communications technologies.
By contributing to a sense of belonging
- Providing attractive, comfortable public spaces conducive to group interactions.
- Including programming that helps forge connections and break social isolation.
- Delivering memorable new collective experiences.
By improving the dynamics of Living Together
- Supporting communities' expression and fulfilment (e.g., encouraging individual and collective assertion and engagement, cultivating autonomy and capacity building).
- Avoiding spatial planning that leads to segregation, ghettoization and isolation of specific groups within the territory.
- Providing an environment and services that respect the identities of historically marginalized communities (e.g., Indigenous and immigrant populations) and promote cultural safety.
- Giving room to arts and literature in their various forms of expression, in a spirit of openness and representation of diversity.
By developing modes of co-existence
- Providing modes of co-existence or co-management of spaces that involve community groups, organizations and associations.
- Guaranteeing access to the spaces and infrastructures that community organizations need to function successfully over the long term.