When we think about how to support health in communities and how practitioners in the built environment can help create healthier developments, there seems to be an array of toolkits available. Yet how do we know which one to use? It becomes quite difficult to understand which tool is best suited to any given project. This session, chaired by director of Urban Habitats Mark Drane at the Healthy City Design Congress, explored precisely this question.

A toolbox for healthy cities

Consultant and sustainable health planner Mieke Weterings, working at the City of Rotterdam, commented how with so many toolkit options for the design process, there is a need for a ‘Toolbox’ approach. This strategy takes current toolkits for design and adds them to a matrix, which can then be developed as a searchable database. When stakeholders know what they want to achieve in each project, a matrix can be used to assess which tools are most appropriate for the job. These can then be used to develop programme requirements to assist designing for and integrating human and planetary health. 

For professionals already working in the field much of this knowledge of tools may already exist as tacit knowledge. However, for stakeholders not working in urban planning and built environment fields, the array of options can be bewildering.

So, how can we achieve human and planetary health in all aspects of design?

Mieke identified there is great scope for the market, companies, and social organisations, supported by city governments, to collaborate on initiatives and investments for sustainable and healthy development. There is often a heavy reliance on the community to implement change, but with the collaborative approach promoted in Rotterdam, there is hope that more can be done to integrate health in all sectors for a better future.

Urban Community Index

The various types of physical infrastructure that exist in a community, from schools and shops to open space and community facilities, are all part of the wider built fabric of that environment. Ruth Hynes of Atkins looked into the challenges of understanding how the elements of this fabric can support communities. Ruth also identified why it should be an important part of urban planning and how we can overcome the struggle to fully understand and investigate the relationship between people and place when project timescales are often so tight.

Four interrelated principles are highlighted that provide the baseline framework for describing and understanding communities: people; place; spatial connectivity; and agency and access. Both quantitative, open-source data sets and qualitative community evidence are combined, which is a real strength of this approach. With strong community engagement seen as an important part of this method its aim is to provide structure to the complex question of understanding neighbourhoods, communities, and the space around them.

HLM_Healthcheck

Director at HLM Architects Neil Orpwood introduced HLM_Healthcheck, one of three digital tools that make up the ‘Thoughtful Design Toolkit’. The tool, which took more than three years to develop, assesses how building design concepts are likely to perform in regard to quality of the environment for the people who use them. And it supports designers in rapid assessment, iteration, and honing of early design concepts.

Neil highlighted that HLM_Healthcheck is believed to be the first holistic tool to consider key aspects of the built environment in one platform. It relies on simple data inputs that are determinable at a very early design stage, and does not require users to have specialist 3D modelling skills. This helps the practice reduce the amount of reworking it needs to do later in the design process by revealing key insights that can be discussed in the earliest stages. This also gives the team, clients, and funders greater confidence in the proposals from the outset. Could this be the way forward for a sustainable and healthy approach to design practice in the future?

Salutogenic City Sketchbook

Marcus Wilshere, Richard Mazuch and Liz Loughran presented the new ‘Salutogenic City Sketchbook’, developed following an extensive review of healthy placemaking approaches. They shared how existing guides play an important role but are more focused on either generalised or overly technical programmes. The sketchbook aims to invoke thought, spark enthusiasm, and share a vision of what’s possible in how we address human and planetary health in all developments. Uniting healthy place principles with practice, it provides a tool to build a bridge between practice, guidance, and designers and their wider stakeholders.

An example shared was of edible neighbourhoods: the idea that a network of gardeners can come together in the local community to pool produce from city green space and distribute these goods to local markets and food banks. The benefits of this are numerous, with a focus on improved diet, healthy outdoor activity, and making space for a sociable environment, not to mention cutting waste.

What is the gap in current design tools that these ideas seek to address? The discussion focused on several questions that elicited several important insights.

Firstly, it’s often the case that when we are assessing health data, we see unequal outcomes for different communities. Frequently, what we are really looking at is the result of many forms of structural discrimination. So, it’s important that these issues are addressed directly within these tools and not avoided or glossed over.

Secondly, where does the end user fit in? It’s important to identify, as these tools not only provide opportunities for end users to engage but go beyond the usual level of consultation – for example, could community researchers be trained and paid to undertake work to envision their own community alongside practitioners with specialist expertise?

In answer to the overall question of whether the world needs another toolbox or toolkit, the session concluded there are indeed gaps to fill in existing approaches, and finding the right tool for the job is vital – no one tool exists that will address every situation.

The importance of direct person-to-person collaboration was also emphasised, though it was acknowledged that this has been difficult during Covid-19. Mark Drane, as chair of the session, reflected that every city should have a person like Mieke available for communities and stakeholders to approach who can offer friendly and expert guidance on those classic public health questions – what works for whom, when, and in what setting?

Urban Habitats

Working for change is exactly what Urban Habitats aims to do. We use creative, inclusive, and evidence-informed thinking to narrow knowledge gaps, increase understanding, and broaden the scope for the future of healthier places for both people and planet.

Healthy City Design International: Research, Policy, Practice

The Healthy City Design International Congress & Exhibition is a global forum for the exchange of knowledge on the research, policy and practice of designing healthy and sustainable cities and communities. The theme of the 2021 Congress was: ‘Back from the brink: Designing for climate, community and social value’. Urban Habitats was delighted to support this year’s Congress as a Knowledge Leader partner.

Catrin Lyddon is a research associate at Urban Habitats and has a keen interest in population health research and applying this in practice. Her Masters of Research at Swansea University investigated experiences of anxiety among people with multiple sclerosis.