Built environment

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Built environment

The phrase built environment refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity

Anthropogenic

Anthropogenic effects, processes or materials are those that are derived from human activities, as opposed to those occurring in natural environments without human influence....
, ranging from the large-scale civic surroundings to the personal places.

The term is also now widely used to describe the interdisciplinary field of study which addresses the design

Design

Design is used both as a noun and a verb. The term is often tied to the various applied arts and engineering . As a verb, "to design" refers to the process of originating and planning for a product, structure, system, or component with intention....
, management

Management

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Encyclopedia

The phrase built environment refers to the man-made surroundings that provide the setting for human activity

Anthropogenic

Design

Management

Management in business and human organization activity is simply the act of getting people together to accomplish desired goals. Management comprises planning, organizing, staffing, leadership or directing, and Control an organization or effort for the purpose of accomplishing a goal....
and use of these man-made surroundings and their relationship to the human activities which take place within them. The field is generally not regarded as an academic discipline in its own right, but as a "field of application" (or ") which draws upon the individual disciplines of economics, law, management, design and technology in sustainable

Sustainability

Sustainability, in a broad sense, is the ability to maintain a certain process or state. It is now most frequently used in connection with biological and human systems....
sense.

In architecture

Architecture

The term architecture can refer to a process, a profession or documentation.As a process, architecture is the activity of designing and construction buildings and other physical structures by a person or a computer, primarily to provide shelter....
and environmental psychology

Environmental psychology

Environmental psychology is an interdisciplinary field focused on the interplay between humans and their surroundings. The field defines the term environment very broadly including all that is natural on the planet as well as social settings, built environments, learning environments and informational environments....
, the phrase is a useful acknowledgement that a small fraction of buildings constructed annually, even in the industrialized world, are designed by architects, and that users of the built environment encounter issues that cross the traditional professional boundaries between urban planners, traffic engineers

Traffic engineering (transportation)

Traffic engineering is a branch of civil engineering that uses engineering techniques to achieve the safe and efficient movement of people and goods....
, zoning

Zoning

Zoning is a device of land use regulation used by local governments in most developed countries . The word is derived from the practice of designating permitted uses of land based on mapped zones which separate one set of land uses from another....
authorities, architects, interior designers, industrial designers, etc. Historically, much of the built environment has taken the form of vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture

Vernacular architecture is a term used to categorise methods of construction which use locally available resources and traditions to address local needs....
, and this is still the case in large parts of the world. In the industrialized world, many buildings are produced by large scale development remote from its eventual users.

In landscape architecture

Landscape architecture

Landscape architecture is the most modern of the environment professions and represents a synthesis of arts, science and technical philosphies and practices that seek to care for the Earth's landscapes in a truly holistic, creative and sustainable manner....
, the built environment is identified as opposed to the natural environment

Natural environment

The natural environment, commonly referred to simply as the environment, is a term that encompasses all life and non-living things occurring nature on Earth or some region thereof....
, with the recognition that places like Central Park

Central Park

Central Park is a large public, urban park in New York City, with about twenty-five million visitors annually. Most of the areas immediately adjacent to the park are known for impressive buildings and valuable real estate....
may have the look, feel, and nourishing quality of natural surroundings while being completely artificial and "built," thus blurring the line between the two.

In urban planning

Urban planning

Urban, city, and town planning is the integration of the disciplines of land use planning and transport planning, to explore a very wide range of aspects of the built and social environments of urbanized municipalities and communities....
, the phrase connotes the idea that a large percentage of the human environment is manmade, and these artificial surroundings are so extensive and cohesive that they function as organism

Organism

In biology, an organism is any life thing . In at least some form, all organisms are capable of response to stimulus , reproduction, growth and developmental biology, and maintenance of homeostasis as a stable whole....
s in the consumption of resources, disposal of wastes, and facilitation of productive enterprise within its bounds.Recently there has also been considerable dialogue and research into the impact of the built environment's impact on population health (see ).

Built environment

Further Reading

See also

External links