What is Good Design? More socially connected and environmentally conscious design.

Where we live, both the physical building and the location and community that we live in, influences almost every aspect of our lives and has significant impacts on our health and wellbeing. Designing for health and wellbeing benefits individuals and communities, as well as the wider population, and is becoming increasingly important as we spend more and more time at home.

Designing for Health and Wellbeing

Where we live, both the physical building and the location and community that we live in, influences almost every aspect of our lives and has significant impacts on our health and wellbeing. Designing for health and wellbeing benefits individuals and communities, as well as the wider population, and is becoming increasingly important as we spend more and more time at home. By designing built environments through a wellbeing lens, the ill-effects of buildings can be mitigated and spaces can be created that nurture a sense of wellbeing and actually improve health outcomes. Benefits go beyond direct health and wellbeing outcomes, to economic and operational outcomes, as shown in Figure 1 below.

The fundamentals of designing for health and wellbeing include:

• Re-integrating nature into design: natural materials, incorporation of natural elements (eg. plants), outlook/ views to nature, natural patterns and varying scales of detail in building elements.
• Designing to create or enhance a sense of community and belonging
• Design of spaces that respond to fundamental human needs: eg., spaces for both prospect and refuge.
• Design at the street-scale that supports ‘active transport’.
• Lighting design that supports the 24 hour human circadian rhythm.
• Design that allows residents to feel secure in their homes, with suitable levels of privacy, and adaptability or flexibility for when inhabitants grow and change.
• Design that allows residents to live easily in their homes: suitable layouts for good functionality, design for limited mobility, low maintenance.
• Using healthy materials and enabling efficient heating and ventilation.

Designing for health and wellbeing has synergies with principles of sustainable design, meaning that while this approach follows a people-centred view of design, it also supports a regenerative approach. The above factors have been integrated in the following sections, as a common thread within ‘good’ design.

Urban Design and Neighbourhoods

Cities and neighbourhoods are complex systems, and urban design seeks a coordinated approach to the arrangement of the physical components of urban form and create the setting for urban living.

Good urban design supports wellbeing, across scales - from our homes and streets - impacting our daily lives, our health, how we feel and connect with other people in our neighbourhoods and communities. Important urban design considerations include:

An integrated response to the site and local context. 

New development should be integrated into the existing natural and built environment context, with consideration for community, climate, character and the physical environment. Urban design responses consider the appropriate size and scale of building forms (height, setbacks, materiality), street interface, the layout of streets and provision of public spaces and amenities, within the existing context as well as looking to the future, and responding to the demand for growth and changing lifestyles and environments (e.g. climate change response, housing crisis). Low impact urban design is also important, which is an integrated hydrological and ecological approach to stormwater management.

Access and connection: well-functioning urban environments provide safe, convenient and equitable access for people for everyday activities. 

A range of viable and convenient transport modes should be provided, catering to a range of access abilities. Walkability, as separate from vehicle access, is crucial. Walkable neighbourhoods support environmentally and socially sustainable communities, including access to amenities. Dedicated cycling infrastructure is also vital, allowing cyclists to move at suitable speeds without being hindered by cars or pedestrians, and while optimising safety. Consideration of universal design for accessibility is important at the building scale too, as well as access for larger service vehicles (emergency services, waste collection).

Density, diversity and activity.

The density of built form determines the concentration of people and overall activity and vibrancy of a community, and the viability of commercial activities, community amenities and services. Density also supports a range of efficiencies with building sustainability (see below). The design of the public realm (streets, parks etc) influences how people use and relate to these spaces, and in turn, how they relate to one another. Urban design considerations like ‘bumping spaces’, a balanced provision of private and public outdoor spaces from the home to the neighbourhood can support a diversity of spatial functions, and vibrant neighbourhoods, whatever the density. 

Access to nature and amenity. 

Consideration for daylight, sunlight, and outlook through the aspect, orientation and access to private outdoor space in homes supports wellbeing (physical, mental, spiritual, cultural). Passive surveillance or ‘eyes on the street’ strengthens neighbourhood safety through the careful consideration of outlook from private spaces to the public realm (e.g. kitchen window outlook to the street or shared open space) - this is one consideration of Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED). As well as visual links, physical links and access to public open spaces, reserves close to home are important too, with good visibility and lighting (CPTED consideration). Landscape considerations can support privacy and amenity at home, and street trees and low impact design for stormwater support environmental resilience, wellbeing and biodiversity, balancing the integration of the built and natural environment.

Architecture and Homes

Design that gives people a sense of belonging and pride. 

People naturally want to feel settled in their environment, and feel included and as though they belong. This creates the sense of “home”. Belonging and pride can be influenced by feelings of ownership of a place, a sense of identity tied to one’s home, and interactions with neighbours and the wider community that increase overall community participation.

Design that enables some resident control, to give a sense of personal attachment and stability.

To build a sense of identity of home, people need to feel as though they have some control and ownership of their space so that they can make their home their own. This helps with feelings of stability and results in greater pride of place and respect. Allowing control can be as simple as allowing walls to be painted, or pictures to be hung on walls.

Design that is flexible/ adaptable to accommodate changes across life stages.

The longer people can stay in their home and their community, the greater the social connection and sense of community wellbeing. To cater for all life-stages, a variety of housing typologies is needed. However, by designing-in flexible or adaptable spaces, people are able to adjust their home as their family and lifestyle changes and remain in their home for longer. 

Design that incorporates nature, through natural materials, connection to green outdoor spaces, natural patterns, textures, and scales (fractals), views to nature. 

Humans have an innate desire to be in nature. We are drawn to green spaces, trees, mountains, rivers, and the ocean. While we may not always be lucky enough to experience these things directly, we can enhance health and wellbeing by incorporating nature as much as possible in design. This includes natural materials, textures and patterns, levels of aesthetic complexity and composition that mimic natural patterns, and being in, or in-view of nature as much as possible. 

Design that encourages active ways of living.

In conjunction with designing for activity at the urban scale, homes can also be designed to enable or encourage active ways of living. This can be achieved through provision of cycle storage, gardens that open out onto larger shared outdoor spaces or shared pathways, and making it easier for people to walk or cycle out of their house rather than drive.

Presence of natural daylight to help with regulating human rhythms (circadian rhythm).

Natural daylight is critical for regulating the natural human internal clock (circadian rhythm) that sets our sleep-wake cycle (and other biological cycles) over a 24 hour period. Artificial light impacts circadian rhythms by confusing the naturally anticipated light sequence of a day, and has negative effects on health and wellbeing. It is therefore important that we receive as much natural daylight as possible throughout the day.

Buildings that are healthy, with low VOCs, good ventilation, easy to heat and maintain.

An unhealthy home means unhealthy residents. While being warm and dry is paramount to creating healthy living environments, there is more that can be done to optimise health. Machine-made or artificial building materials can contain compounds (Volatile Organic Compounds, or VOCs) that harm both humans and the environment. By reducing these, through the use of low VOC materials, the risk can be reduced and health can be optimised. It is also important that homes have good ventilation, are easy to heat, and easy to maintain, so that they are able to be kept warm and dry in the long-term. 

Houses that are designed to have varying levels of privacy - allowing passive surveillance where needed, and interaction between neighbours, but also provides a sense of safety and retreat.

The balance between public and private (prospect and refuge) is important to get right, so that people can feel both a sense of community interaction and participation, and security and safety. This is best achieved by using a public-private gradient at both the neighbourhood and building scale. Spaces just beyond and just inside the property boundary should be created as public-private buffer zones where neighbours can bump into each other or wave over the fence. 

Variation in house typologies to give a sense of individuality, exploration and discovery, rather than a monotonous street frontage. [this links to enriched environments]. 

House types should be varied, to add to people’s sense of place and individuality, and to prevent monotonous street-scapes. At the urban-design scale, architectural variation adds interest to the street, enhances wayfinding, and encourages exploration through a neighbourhood. (This is especially important for elderly residents who may get lost in rows of houses that all look the same).  

Variation in house typologies also helps in creating diverse groupings of people (e.g., a one bedroom unit that may be inhabited by elderly, next to a three bedroom house that may be home to a family)

If you are interested in learning how your organisation can deliver more socially connected and sustainable design get in touch at info@theurbanadvisory.com