Title of the research: Indexing Social Value in Architecture: Comparing Community Centers and Libraries both in Bangladesh and Canada through Inclusiveness and Spatial Justice
under the supervision of Dr. Jean-Pierre Chupin
Abstract: Despite the introduction of the UN SDGs in 2015, most stakeholders still consider only environmental and economic sustainability, while ignoring social sustainability. Moreover, the value system in architecture remains oriented toward beautification and formal representations that often escape basic requirements for inclusion and users’ experience. Currently, perspectives on social value diverge across three main poles: (i) Government’s formal pole; ii) professionals’ quantitative approach; (ii) scholars’ disciplinary approach. Amid these tensions, the users’ experience-based perspective remains marginalized. Furthermore, existing parameters do not sufficiently account for social, racial, and economic inequalities in the built environment. Therefore, an approach to capturing social value centered on inclusion and equity is necessary. Focusing on these epistemological gray areas and on developing a “social value index,” the research question is: How can the notion of “social value” be considered and applied properly in the architectural transformation of the public realm towards more inclusiveness and spatial justice?