This is really a very new idea and the definitions and scope of it remain confused as it begins to establish as a field.  I travel very internationally and find through experience that there are real cutural variations that relate to the built environment.  I suggest two main areas for you to look at.

the first is the attitudes dominant within the culture ecological sustainability and thus how buildings are constructed and maintained.   For example in my experience Australian culture is yet to place the importance we see in Europe on ecological sustainability and you see this in the way architecture is created, with some notable exceptions the most well known of which would be Lenn Murcott who is heavily influenced by aboriginal culture. One could explain this in terms of the newness of the country, it's geographical isolation and the abundance of local natural resources.

the second area is the way culture influences th away we use space.  This would include notions or privacy and public space as well as acceptable distances between strangers and friends etc.   you could look at my book The Language of Space to get ideas about this and how you might explore the links.

Dear Mr. Asif Ali,

Based on both my experience researching on the topic, I can tell you that cultural sustainability can be understood in two different ways:

   - The sustainability of a culture: is this culture going to exist in the future? Is this going to survive the future context and are the new generations going to maintain it?

   - What is understood by sustainability within a concrete culture. That means that not all cultures in world undertand that one agricultural practice is sustainable. This is due to the fact that sustainability changes with time and place. For example, 1 cow per hectare in Africa can be sustainable, but this stocking rate is not sustainable in other places.

A part from that, I would like to highlight the relationship between landscapes and culture. In summary: different cultures (and their practices) shape landscapes. Later, such landscapes are an important part the the local culture.

I hope this information is useful for you.

Best regards,

Alfredo.

If we read the literature we find that built environment and its functionality are greatly influenced by socio-cultural requirement. And the external features of the architecture are governed by climate and weather patterns to a large extent and socio-cultural issues to small extent.

If we go even deeper then we find that socio-cultural issues are also governed by prevailing climatic conditions and keep on changing (at very mild pace as climate is changing and interaction among peoples of different socio-cultural setup is increasing).

In the present context of highly interdependent world and with a demand of increasing effort to improve the living conditions the issue raised needs to be looked at new approach and out of box thinking.

I will also suggest to read my publication "Bio-climatism and Vernacular Architecture".

Many thanks for your contributions

Prof. Lawson's notion of looking the problem from two different perspectives is quite nice and his book is quite worthy to understand the subject more clearly. I am going through your book Sir.

Mr. Escribano's example though related to agriculture but quite evident in case of built environment. Culture is vibrant and ever changing and is greatly influenced by its place. 

I am also thankful to Manoj, your idea of interdependency of built environment and socio-cultural issues is quite strong. I want to see your paper "Bio-climatism and Vernaculer Architecture", kindly send its full text to me.

regards

Dear Mr Asif Ali, My co-author has sent you the asked publication. I hope you will find it interesting.

Regards,

Manoj

If we understand ecosystems to include humans, then human cultures are variables within the system. Two sources investigate this idea in somewhat different ways:

Davis, Howard. 2006. The Culture of Building. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Guy, Simon and Graham Farmer. 2001. "Reinterpreting Sustainable Architecture: The Place of Technology." Journal of Architectural Education 54 (3):140-148.

Very interesting question--and answers.  I'd contribute the idea that the built environment of a given culture is a product of economics and of tastes.  For example, Scandinavian cultures have wood readily available, so they build with wood; desert peoples build with earth.  Farming people can live scattered over the landscape, while people dependent on large industries tend to concentrate in towns.  Tastes, which depend in part on history, influence (for example) the distinctive way in which a wooden house in Japan differs from a wooden house in Louisiana.  But cultures themselves depend on economics (very broadly defined), and economics limits the development and expression of tastes.  Moreover, cultures are constantly subject to change, partly due to economics, partly due to outside influences (conquest,, trade).  The US landscape architect John

Brinckerhoff Jackson has written some very good essays on culture, economics and the built environment.  It's a complex subject, but a fascinating one.

Dear Asif Ali,

For my PhD research I dug into the problem of framing/assessing sustainability.  You can read about this quest in the article 'How to cut across the catch-all? A philosophical-cultural framework for assessing sustainability' that you find on my Research Gate profile page.  It is no direct answer, but I hope it can give you some valuable elements to help clarifying the fascinating relation between sustainability, culture and the built environment.

Best regards,

Han Vandevyvere

Thank you very much Opoku

Your publication is quite useful for my query regarding the subject.

regards

What: cultural sustainability is the survivorship of a set of distinct norms/rites as witnessed and practiced by a distinct group in society.

How:preservation of heritage buildings: maintaining a tangible link to the past, and how a culture would thereby 'live on' in the collective consciousness of a populace.

Why: place attachment & memory. Physical artifacts are as important as prejudices,norms and practices.Survivorship is a function of tangibility, and needs to be visceral.

Thanks a lot Lew for a precised answer.

Dear @Asif, please find enclosed relevant blog about the issue.

Culture – The Fourth Pillar of Sustainable Development!

"As an innovation to traditional approach, in last couple of years culture has been emphasized as the fourth pillar of sustainable development. Decades of experience in designing, implementing and evaluating development programmes in diverse contexts have shown us that culture plays a key role as both a driver and enabler for sustainable development and that cultural dynamics need to be examined as part of the drive for human rights. In its 2012 Thematic Piece (Culture: a driver and an enabler of sustainable development) UNESCO has emphasized that all relevant data has shown that ‘…culture can be a powerful driver for development, with community-wide social, economic and environmental impacts.’..."

http://www.cirsd.org/news/article/culture-the-fourth-pillar-of-sustainable-development

built heritage is an important part of cultural heritage , carrying forward cultural aspects and identities of various dynasites, epochs, clearly distinguishing from other timelines within same socio cultural groups or different layers of diff culture influencing base layer eg colonial islamis indo sarscenic, fusion of different elements like in Fatehpur Sikri. But in modern times, democratic symbols of governance like capitol complexes, Assembly buildings, City museums, town halls, civic centres or even shopping malls are new cultural centres.