The Role of the Architect in Inner City Development

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Assignment 2: Argumentative Essay
The Role of the Architect in Inner City Development
Student Name
Student Code
Academic and Professional Communication
TH1010522
Name of the University
19-June-2019

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Introduction
Inner-city development goes beyond just designing and building homes and parks for
society. Urban planning and design today has become an integral part of inner-city
development and sustainability, which makes the role of an architect an indispensable part of
urban city designing. Most of the famous and popular constructions, along with
considerations of building smart and green cities have arisen from the creative and innovative
capabilities of architects involved with designing and planning urban and rural city
developments. Architecture is the inclusion of all artworks and infrastructures of the built
environment, which further necessitates the role of architects in delivering not just art but the
tremendous value to society (Alaily-Mattar and Thierstein 2018).
Thus, this essay will explain the role of architects in creating sustainability, which
goes beyond the application of creative and innovative skills to improve aesthetic value. In
accordance to the research conducted on the role of architects in inner-city development,
studies have highlighted the complexity of thinking, defining, and planning urban design
especially for architects to create liveable spaces for humans that involves a great amount of
design experimentation and collaboration with urban designers, investors, stakeholders, and
the society itself. The essay will attempt to explore how architects are involved with
collaborative planning with the aim of building and development inner-cities by focussing on
sustainability, safety, and affordability. Furthermore, the paper will argue about the relevance
of an architect’s role in sustainable practices and the consequences of sustainability in urban
site planning and development in creating better and healthier public spaces, increasing a
sense of community and facilitating social interactions.
Discussion
Architects play a critical role in sustainable designing and planning the aspects of a
built environment, i.e. artworks, infrastructure, buildings, parks, etc. The value of design
created by architects while involved with a design and planning process helps deal with
infrastructural and architectural problems with different approaches to find and select the
most appropriate of the options (Hermanns 2018). This is what asserts the importance and
influence of an architect in design experimentation and primarily what gets architects
involved in sustainable site planning that can cater to the requirements of people. While
keeping aesthetics in mind, one of the most crucial roles of an architect is to decide on the

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arrangement of structures and create a layout that considers the land use, government laws
and regulations, creating and shaping available space, and finalizing a workable layout to suit
organizational and societal needs (Abdelfattah 2018). While taking these factors into account
while site planning for inner-city development, architects also collaborate with others
involved in the development process, i.e. local community, stakeholders, and the government.
Considering the indispensable role that architects have in reducing environmental impact,
catering to clients’ requirements, and improve the accessibility of ecosystem services and
facilities, sustainable inner-city development helps promote affordable yet healthy lifestyles.
By creating public spaces that satisfy the needs of all parties without compromising on the
aesthetic and sustainable value of buildings and spaces facilitates interactions between
communities. For example, proper site planning ensures that architects use resources
efficiently and at the same time, focus on environmental impacts and community needs, be it
building landscapes, housing, or community/public spaces like parks. For example,
community architects’ attempt at creating green-roof infrastructures in Australia helped
mitigate the urban heat island effect, highlighting the important role of architects in
improving the quality of life by considering environmental impacts through sustainable
practices for urban site planning and design (Lehmann 2014). As such, the amount of
collaboration observed by architects with those involved in site planning and development is
highly responsible for increasing the sustainability and aesthetic value of urban design.
An important aspect of an architect's role in achieving sustainability while developing
inner-cities is to focus on housing affordability. Affordability is one of the main reasons why
a major part of urban site planning and development relies on the perspective, knowledge,
and expertise of an architect. Evidence of this has been found in the study conducted by Buys
and Miller (2012), where inner high-urban density (IHUD) areas immensely benefit not only
from affordable housing but from the capabilities of an architect to consider residential needs
and factors that can improve the community or neighborhood's standard of living (Sharifi
2016). Inner high-urban density areas associate with complex factors that make urban site
planning, designing, and development quite a challenge for architects. Thus, the role of an
architect is to incorporate basic economic and social factors that can help understand the
satisfaction level of residents and focus on inner-city development plans that benefit the
society (Bragança, Vieira and Andrade 2014).
To assess social, environmental, and economic factors to improve sustainability and
residential satisfaction, architects are involved with the early stages of decision-making in