Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Department of Architecture, Faculty of Art and Architecture, Bu-Ali Sina University, Hamedan, Iran
10.22034/jsc.2026.549799.1885
Abstract
A B S T R A C T
Recent health crises, especially the COVID-19 pandemic, have highlighted the need to review the principles of neighborhood design with an emphasis on promoting health, resilience, and urban sustainability. Despite the proliferation of related studies, no comprehensive framework has yet been developed that systematically integrates health, resilience, and physical quality considerations within neighborhood design. Therefore, this study aims to explain the design pattern of sustainable neighborhood units in the face of health crises. This research was conducted with an applied purpose and a qualitative approach based on content analysis. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews with residents and experts in the fields of architecture, urban development, and urban planning. Data collection proceeded until theoretical saturation was achieved. Data analysis was conducted based on Brown and Clark's six-step method using MAXQDA software. The findings exhibited that the sustainable neighborhood design model is based on five main themes, including physical health, mental health, social health, neighborhood resilience, and design strategies, which were extracted from a set of sub-themes and initial codes. The results indicate that improving the quality of indoor environment, developing open and semi-open spaces, the quality of social capital, increasing access to neighborhood services, physical flexibility, and pedestrianization are the most important strategies for improving the resilience of neighborhood units against health crises. The innovation of the research lies in providing an analytical framework for systematically linking stakeholder experiences, extracted themes, and health-oriented design strategies towards realizing a sustainable city.
Extended Abstract
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic posed an exceptional challenge to traditional planning of neighborhoods by demonstrating inadequacies of residential environments when dealing with public health crisis situations. In the period of long-term quarantines and lockdowns, the neighborhood served as the main arena of life, which showed the crucial significance of local spatial qualities for promoting physical, psychological well-being, and community interaction. These exceptional conditions shifted academic focus from physical features of residential environment towards more complex and human-oriented perspectives on neighborhood design.
A large body of literature has examined particular aspects of sustainable urban development such as Healthy Cities, Urban Resilience, and Sustainable Urban Design. The findings indicate that green infrastructure, walkability, public open spaces availability, and neighborhood accessibility play a significant role in increasing the quality of life in times of health crisis situations. At the same time, resilience research highlights the aspect of adaptability of urban systems, whereas healthy city research concentrates only on the environmental determinants of health. However, these three research strands remain separated from each other, resulting in a fragmentation of knowledge about relationships among different aspects of neighborhood sustainability.
Also Most prior studies have used quantitative methods with pre-defined indicators. In this regard, they offer little insight on the experience of the people living in these neighborhoods and the mechanisms through which they impact the perception of health and resilience among the residents in crisis periods.
Given this context, there remains a significant theoretical and empirical lacuna with respect to a conceptual framework that integrates both experiential insights from residents and professional expertise to inform sustainable neighborhood design.
Therefore, in order to address this gap, this study adopts four different theoretical perspectives; that is the Neighborhood Unit Theory, Healthy Cities Theory, Urban Resilience Theory, and Sustainable Urban Design. This paper aims to analyze the relationship among these theories qualitatively.
With this in mind, the key goal of this research project is to develop a conceptual framework for sustainable neighborhood design based on the experiences of residents and the urban planners. This study is guided by the following research question:
How can the lived experiences of residents and the perspectives of experts contribute to the development of an integrated conceptual framework for sustainable neighborhood design in times of public health crises?
Methodology
This study adopted a qualitative research design with an applied approach, employing thematic analysis as the methodology for investigating residents' experiences in relation to space. The analysis process took into consideration the principles of the constant comparative logic suggested by Strauss and Corbin to allow for the constant movement among data, initial codes, sub-themes, and themes.
An empirical study was carried out in Ekbatan Town, Tehran, which is one of the biggest planned residential neighborhoods in Iran. The neighborhood of Ekbatan was selected due to its unique neighborhood design, comprehensive public and semi-public space networks, mixed residential density, and developed local services.
Data collection was carried out with the help of semi-structured in-depth interviews with 30 people, including both the neighborhood’s residents and urban planning experts. Purposive sampling was used to make sure that there was enough variation among the interviewed people in terms of demographic features and expertise.
The interview guide was developed based on a number of themes including spatial perception, the neighborhood’s health status, environmental quality, social interaction, sustainability and resilience in the period of the pandemic. All interviews were audio-taped, transcribed verbatim and then coded using MAXQDA software.
Data analysis followed an iterative thematic coding process involving familiarization with the data, initial codes generation, categorization into subthemes, the identification of overarching themes, and continuous refinement through constant comparison. The analysis ultimately resulted in five principal themes representing the multidimensional characteristics of sustainable neighborhood design.
Several qualitative validation techniques were employed to enhance the trustworthiness of the findings. Member checking was conducted by sharing thematic interpretations with selected participants to verify the credibility of the analytical interpretations. Furthermore, 20% of the interview transcripts were independently coded by a second researcher, resulting in an initial intercoder agreement of 86%. Coding discrepancies were resolved through collaborative discussion and repeated examination of the interview transcripts until consensus was achieved. These procedures substantially strengthened the credibility, dependability, and confirmability of findings.
Results and Discussion
The thematic analysis generated five interrelated key themes that together provide a comprehensive explanation of the multi-dimensional dimensions of sustainable neighborhood designs in public health emergencies: physical health, psychological health, social health, neighborhood resilience, and strategies for sustainable design. These themes do not present independent findings; rather, they have been developed by constant comparative analysis of the stories of participants to understand the complex links among the spatial features, human behavior, and the perception of health and resilience.
The first theme, physical health, indicated that the spatial features like natural ventilation, sufficient light, the neighborhood walkability, and access to open spaces are crucial elements of healthy living amid the coronavirus pandemic. The study participants constantly related these spatial features to a lower risk of getting ill and higher confidence about the use of neighborhood spaces. This clearly indicates that physical health is dependent on both the performance of buildings and the spatial arrangements of neighborhoods.
The second theme, mental health, demonstrated that semi-open spaces, including balconies, terraces, and private outdoor areas, played a significant role in alleviating psychological stress caused by prolonged confinement. Participants described these spaces as opportunities for restoring emotional well-being through exposure to fresh air, daylight, and visual contact with the surrounding environment. This finding indicates that psychological resilience is closely linked to the availability of flexible intermediate spaces that mediate between indoor and outdoor environments.
The third theme, social health was about the role of communal areas in fostering social interaction despite the physical distancing regulations. Respondents pointed out that well-designed communal areas would promote social cohesiveness, create a stronger sense of neighborhood and informal support systems amid the pandemic. In sum, the results indicate that social sustainability requires not only the amount of interaction but also the spatial quality which makes such communication safe and fruitful for the inhabitants.
The fourth theme, neighborhood resilience is the outcome of the interplay of accessibility, local amenities, flexibility, and adaptability. Respondents stated that the neighborhood which had easily accessible daily amenities, walkable environment and multifunctional public spaces was better at dealing with sudden crises. Thus, the results contribute to the understanding of resilience in a wider context than physical infrastructure alone.
The fifth theme, sustainable design strategies can be viewed as the conceptual synthesis of the above-mentioned 4 themes, and not an independent theme at all. The comparative analysis exhibited that the sustainable design of neighborhoods cannot be reached via single physical measures only. Rather, it presupposes the consideration of environmental, health, social and adaptive aspects simultaneously. Thus, the proposed conceptual framework allows turning the residents' experience into physical strategies, such as spatial flexibility, increase in open and semi-open space, walkability, natural ventilation, and access to services in the neighborhood.
Generally, the findings showed that neighborhood sustainability is a dynamic relationship between physical settings and the experience of the people. In contrast to previous studies addressing the topics of Healthy Cities, Urban Resilience or Sustainable Design independently, this study unites those theoretical approaches into a framework based on qualitative evidence. Therefore, the proposed framework is valuable both for theory and practice due to its explanations of mechanisms that relate spatial design to health, resilience, and social sustainability in crisis situations.
Conclusion
In this paper, the conceptual framework for sustainable neighborhood design was created, relying on the residents' experience and the opinion of urban planning experts during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is revealed that the concept of neighborhood sustainability not only consists of environmental quality physical aspects but also requires interaction among health, social relations, spatial flexibility, and neighborhood resilience. Thus, the five themes described in the research together explain how each dimension impacts the life of the residents and serve as a basis for evidence-based sustainable neighborhood planning.
The main contribution is the combination of theoretical principles of the Neighborhood Unit, Healthy City, Urban Resilience, and Sustainable Urban Design theories into one framework, supported by qualitative data. Through examining the interconnections among the identified themes, this study transcends the mere cataloging of design elements to propose a conceptual model for sustainable neighborhood development grounded in health and resilience considerations.
From a practical point of view, the results may become the basis for future changes in the design guidelines for residential neighborhoods, including the focus on flexible spatial arrangement, natural ventilation, accessibility to public and semi-public spaces, walkability, and services provision.
Although the study provides valuable insights, its findings are limited to a single residential neighborhood and are therefore context-dependent. Future research is encouraged to examine the applicability of the proposed conceptual framework in different urban contexts and to combine qualitative and quantitative approaches for further validation of the identified relationships.
Funding
There is no funding support.
Authors’ Contribution
The first author was responsible for the research design, literature review, data collection, interviews, coding and analysis of qualitative data, writing the initial draft, and making revisions to the article. The second author contributed to the research by providing scientific guidance, supervising the methodology, critically reviewing the text, interpreting the findings, and approving the final version of the article. All authors reviewed and approved the final version of the article.
Conflict of Interest
Authors declared no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgments
We are grateful to all the scientific consultants of this paper.
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