Theoretical discourse on sustainable space design: towards creating and sustaining effective sidewalks

Users are a potential source of behavioral change when led to experience alternative design strategies that aim to encourage a more sustainable lifestyle. Thus, ‘sustainability‐oriented’ street design takes on an active role in creating spaces that cater to users by considering the whole spectrum of pedestrian needs, considering the users' historical and cultural diversity in the development of a more responsive street regulation and standards and incorporating the two interacting spatial components: movement, satisfying the basic need for mobility; and non‐movement, complementing movement to achieve a more effective and sustainable space. The paper will touch on the dichotomy of space perception between the East and the West, based on the premise that city morphology has been influenced largely by its ecology, resulting in two city formations: the organic city form and the planned city system. It will wrap up with initial recommendations on achieving a more context‐sensitive design. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.