Quality Sustainable Living
An overwhelming majority of the world’s population are concentrated in some form of urban settlement pattern, but the way people live in the city is obviously highly differentiated. 
While homelessness, inhabiting slums or sub-standard properties, living below the poverty line or in illegality, third-generation unemployment, exclusion from educational opportunities, etc. are unacceptable features of the urban condition, these realities form a constant reminder of the tensions characterising interaction between management of the physical environment and the socio-economic circumstances of its citizens. It is increasingly recognised that involved, “healthy” communities form the primary building blocks of truly sustainable cities, but the struggle to accommodate the balanced, interdependent, inclusive and qualitative development pattern that this implies is far from being resolved. Within this context housing provision has traditionally been seen as both problem and solution, and relationship between house and home is indeed a crucial factor in considerations of quality of life. However in its statement clarifying the “human right to adequate housing” (UN Universal declaration of human rights – 1948, European Social Charter revised version – 1999), the United Nations Committee on Economic Social and Cultural Rights suggests that “adequacy” is determined also by social, economic, cultural, climatic, ecological and other factors (The right to adequate housing (Art.II(I). CESCR General Comment No. 4 – 1991). Furthermore it includes an important background message in relation to this sub-theme namely that the right to adequate housing is not simply about legal security of tender but also about: availability of services, materials, facilities and infrastructure; affordability; habitability; accessibility; location; and cultural adequacy. So the terms of reference for this sub-theme can be firmly positioned to make the link between housing as essential human requirement and community building - thereby targeting the development of sustainable, qualitative housing areas/neighbourhoods within a balanced and integrated framework as set out for European cities in the Leipzig Charter.
The projects HOPUS and SUITE ( Social Inclusion and Governance Pole) represent more the physical dimension in this dialogue, where HOPUS is concerned almost from the “Baukultuur” point of view to generate better housing environments based on the adoption of design coding, while SUITE addresses the problems of how to deliver adequate and appropriate supplies of qualitative social/affordable housing in our cities. The primary focus of Building Healthy Communities ( Social Inclusion and Governance Pole) is on real community health issues, but in this juxtaposition an opening is created both to confront the role of housing in this respect but also to think about how communities themselves can be enabled to participate effectively in improving the conditions in which they live. It is also anticipated that other networks dealing with aspects of deprived neighbourhoods can make valuable contributions to this thematic subject.
To find out more about the aims, methods, events and outputs being planned by these networks read the synthesis of their baseline studies.