Neighbourhood Compatibility in Relation to Quality of life and Livability in Urban Areas

Abstract

In the last decades, there has been a significant increase in urbanization. According to the United Nations survey over 55% of the world live in urban areas.Since metropolitan regions are the epicentre of greater possibilities and living standards, there is a significant movement of individuals from rural
to urban areaswith increasing population in urban areas, challenges of better quality of life and livability of the residents are also inevitable. There are various impacts of urban physical environments on the behaviour and activity of people and people prefer to reside in better neighbourhood, enjoy and interact with the spaces they live in. Clarence Perry’s model of the neighbourhood unit has become a recurring concept in the planning of cities. The neighborhoods are greatly impacted with the advent of the automobile technology and rise of urban areas. “People living in the greatest cities may not be happy if their children are not able to attend the school without crossing the transit way or are not able
to buy groceries from a nearby store or do not have access to playgrounds and open spaces”, says Perry. Perry delivered the notion of human-scale neighbourhood planning in the modern urban context. While Perry had an ideal concept of a neighbourhood. The paper intends to discuss the urban physical
environment and its imposed urban consequences of which we all are a part. Such urban conditions are a repercussion of the developmental activities which are important and inevitable in the contemporary urban scenario but rupture the existing neighbourhood and its associated activities. The urban areas which were developed in reference to community planning had a reflection of these
parameters defined by Clarence Perry.In earlier times, the idea of a neighbourhood unit was strongly associated with a sense of community, belonging, and identity. Close proximity to the neighbourhood services enhanced interactions and community activities. One such example of the neighbourhood is located in the Babajipura area of Vadodara district.The paper also intends to discuss the concept of the neighbourhood unit by Clarence Perry and other protagonists and acknowledge its essence and need in the contemporary urban scenario.