Neighbouring patterns in Australian suburban housing developments

‘Sense of community’ and ‘neighbouring’ are two key concepts that are integral to social cohesion. They have been the subject of extensive studies in several disciplines including sociology, psychology and built environment. Sense of community is used to describe a feeling of belonging and shared interests among members of a community. Neighbouring is used to refer to the activities engaged in by and between neighbours. Although the physical qualities of neighbourhoods and suburbs may affect the formation of the sense of community and neighbouring relationships, studies that focus on the contribution of the built environment are limited. According to Silverman (1986), a number of researchers have noted the importance of housing in predicting neighbouring behaviour, but typically have not developed a full model to account for it. To address this gap, this study aims to evaluate the physical structure and characteristics of suburbs and how they contribute to neighbouring interactions and sense of community. Three suburban residential streets in the City of Greater Geelong have been selected for this study. A short survey was conducted in these streets to evaluate the intensity of interactions between the neighbours that reside here. The intensity of neighbouring interactions and the pattern of relationships was documented through Appleyard’s mapping technique. The built environment qualities have also been assessed through extensive field studies and observations. This study will compare the physical qualities of the most successful and unsuccessful street in terms of the number and intensity of interactions to discover how the built environment contributes to a sense of community in suburban developments.