How Urban Design Can Improve Quality of Life

If we’re serious about fighting America’s loneliness epidemic (or improving our social fitness), the way we create new places needs to change. But we also need to think about renovating existing spaces — ideally, with public and private capital working together. Japan offers an inspired an example of how to do this (see further below). Whether it’s a single-family home, an apartment complex, or a community of townhomes and condos, upgrades in a community at all three “levels” can make a big difference in fighting loneliness. Those three levels are: ▶Level 1: Physical Dwelling Certain home renovations make it more likely that a resident can stay in a house longer. This applies to both young families and older adults, creating homes that are “age-friendly.” Those sorts of renovations include but are not limited to: easy-use levers, elevated electrical sockets, walk-in showers, improved lighting and a bedroom on the main floor. The ability to stay in a dwelling longer allows residents to live longer in a place they enjoy and that may provide strong social connections. The alternative — moving to a new place — often comes with a loneliness risk. ▶Level 2: Common Areas A well-designed building can foster connections among neighbors, particularly by creating places for people to interact intentionally or spontaneously. Lobbies with gathering spots, coffee stations, gyms, all-purpose rooms and more can be vital in facilitating social connection.  ▶Level 3: “Third Places” in the Neighborhood. Parks, libraries, community centers and restaurants near home can add significant quality of life for residents. They are places that facilitate social interaction and, if done right, they just make us comfortable. In Japan, both the government and popular household goods maker Muji are investing in “danchi” housing complexes with goals that match those described above. Danchi are large complexes built as affordable options after World War II, but many have fallen into disrepair and are losing residents. As a recent CityLab piece reports, (link: https://bit.ly/3v655zA), the public and private sector both see potential for reinvigorating neighborhoods by renovating danchi. The government has plans to relax laws to allow shops within danchi and is offering subsidies for local governments and businesses to build daycare centers or housing for older adults. On the private side, Muji’s parent company is “working to breathe new life into danchi [by] revamping outdated features like kitchens and traditional tatami flooring in its attempt to attract younger residents." Muji is also planning renovations in surrounding neighborhooods to address social isolation. It’s an interesting example to follow. In our country, if well-heeled capital — public and/or private — can influence all three levels, it could have a real impact on the plague of loneliness. And it could provide a strong value proposition for the investors, as well.

If they can do it in Austin – one of the most car-centric cities in the country – we can do it here too. Every neighborhood starts with an intention. In Baton Rouge, and the majority of cities around the country, the intention has historically been to develop commercial corridors and car-dependent destinations – hence, stringent parking minimums that require developers to spend resources servicing cars over people. In order to plan for vibrant, pedestrian-safe neighborhoods, we have to do something about these outdated regulations. In implementing the Government Street road diet, we saw that by taking away some road and parking space, the corridor was actually able to welcome more customers, cyclists, walkers, and others who add to the bustling street life. Current zoning rules limit our ability to plan for the kind of places where people actually want to visit, live, and start businesses. City councils across the country are realizing this, and taking steps to enact zoning measures that get rid of parking minimums. I'm glad to see it! The next time the subject of parking comes up in your community, remember: if we want walkable places, we can’t over-prescribe for parking space.  #parking #walkability #urbandesign

“Technology isn’t the only solution; human power is the greatest force.” As a public health professional within the design industry, I found myself bridging siloes of these professions at my first day at #COP28. A few takeaways: 1.      Creating urban environments for #childhealth requires a focus on prevention that addresses the double burden of infectious and chronic diseases in low- and middle-income countries. Community and youth voices can be prioritized if we are proactive in forming an alliance between designers and public health professionals. Design Firms: Hire or consult with public health researchers and practitioners, early and often to increase human resilience and adaptation. Public Health’rs: Reach out to design and urban planning organizations. All public projects require a hired design professional. Don’t be intimidated by their perfect font selection and renderings. 2.    Individuals with chronic conditions or living with a #disability experience climate threats daily. Designing a safe, sustainable planet must encompass the full “door-to-door” experience, not single discrete elements (Nadia Hadad). Design Firms: Integrate disability from the start. Educate your teams and be intentional about increasing representation of individuals with disabilities in the process so we can deconstruct ableism. Carly Krakow said it best “We cannot say 'net zero' first, then let’s deal with people with disabilities, this is a false and dangerous narrative.” Public Health’rs: Continue and expand research on the disproportionate climate impacts affecting people with disabilities, chronic conditions and older adults. Emina Cerimovic shared that 95% of 2021 Canadian heat wave deaths were people with chronic conditions or disabilities. Quantified impacts across all climate threats are still lacking. 3.    Nature-based solutions have greater health co-benefits than hard infrastructure that remains static. Research continues to illuminate the economic and carbon benefits of natural environment restoration. Check out Siddharth Narayan's research to learn more.   Design Firms: Embrace natural solutions that meet the local needs of the community. If Bangkok is sinking faster than sea level rise due to combined precipitation variability and flooding, then a seawall will not support a vibrant community. Kotchakorn Voraakhom   Public Health’rs: Continue to quantify the health benefits of nature in both urban and rural areas. Just because there are trees in rural environments, doesn’t mean the full benefits of thoughtful landscape architecture are realized. Shout out to Torey Carter-Conneen, CAE for being on the quest to expand this (public health) profession. A huge thank you to The American Institute of Architects (AIA) and the incredible "Week 2" delegates who have quickly become my friends, Emily Grandstaff-Rice FAIA, Derek Washam, Lisa M. Ferretto, and Li Ren. #climatejustice #publichealth #architecture #design

What design characteristics of a third place can help improve social health? How can we ensure that a focus on efficiency and cost savings does not crowd out the need to preserve and promote human connection? Such concerns are especially pertinent as loneliness and social isolation become more prevalent. This semi-structured literature review, written by Erin K. Peavey, offers guidelines to design spaces that combat loneliness and social isolation and foster social capital and community. It is aimed at architects, designers, city planners, and policy makers. "Perhaps the most foundational attribute of a good third place is that it is accessible to those who can use it. The best versions foster a sense of ownership and become regular parts of people’s lives. This requires safe, convenient, affordable, and comfortable access to the place. For children, this means they can gather, play, and explore with some independence from parents as developmentally appropriate. For senior adults or people with disabilities, this means that there are easy physical access options, benches to rest, and spaces to shelter them from the elements. For all ages, the ideal is a space that is within walking distance from home, work, or school. Humans evolved to navigate our worlds on our feet, and much research has shown the benefits of physical activity on the health of our minds and bodies, and the role of walkable streets, neighborhoods, and cities in fostering wellbeing." Placemaking Education PlacemakingX Ofri Earon Ethan Kent HKS, Inc. Julianne Holt-Lunstad #loneliness #isolation #urbandesign #communityhealth #relationships #socialcapital https://lnkd.in/esT-BjEP

The act of spending time together is the way that most families foster a closer bond. It isn’t specific to just families, but also communities. A community is meant to be an extension of family. These people you share a block with, you also share a life with. Yes, maybe not as directly or intimately as the ones inside your home, but the people outside of your four walls have a tremendous impact on the quality of your life. Sadly, these days most of us don’t place enough importance on the notion of community and it’s much to our detriment. A rich sense of community provides people with a sense of belonging, a feeling of being connected as well as the more tangible benefits of having others around to call on in a time of need. These neighbors might show up when your basement is flooding or help you search for your dog when she goes missing. A community provides us with friendships, gives us a sense of familiarity, and also makes life more meaningful. We should all be so lucky to experience a sense of community, but like all things in life, it takes work. A sense of community doesn’t just occur and it’s more difficult than ever to foster- yet all of us can take some lessons from our own families. The solutions to our most significant civic problems are often right in front of us. We can take the lessons from our personal lives and apply them to our civic lives. Sadly, the very spaces that were designed to bring together the community, no longer exist. There is no real mystery as to why our nation’s collective sense of community has dwindled, it directly relates to the shift in the design and maintenance our our towns. It was no accident that a majority of the cities in this country were built around a town square. Town founders understood that quality civic space was central to the health of a community. These were the lessons they brought with them from their own countries, learned over centuries of city building. A town that does not provide a place for residents to gather will struggle to ever foster connections and residents will rarely put down roots. This is a house without a living room or kitchen, a collection of buildings that never binds the occupants. City leaders in the last half-century blatantly disregarded the importance of the public realm and taken away something integral to the civic experience. A community behaves much like a family and when we take away a place for people together, we take away the place where it becomes possible to feel a sense of togetherness. A family will struggle to grow closer if there is nowhere they can be together and a community is the same.

Sitting on the grass at Kendall/MIT Open Space, soaking in the midsummer vibe, I can’t help but notice how alive the campus feels—full of high school students, curious visitors, and that unique energy summer brings to Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As I flip through my notes from Soft City: Building Density for Everyday Life by David Sim (Island Press), the book feels especially timely and relevant.   Sim’s idea of a “soft city” is about moving closer, connecting with others, and designing more human, livable environments (P3). As a designer, it reminds me to embrace opportunities to engage with planet, people, and place (P5)—to create spaces that welcome density and diversity in a way that feels natural, inclusive, and alive.   In the face of pressing challenges—climate change, congestion, segregation, and rapid urbanization (P3)—the concept of a soft city feels more important than ever. Sim outlines nine criteria for achieving livable urban density (P213): diversity of built form, diversity of outdoor spaces, flexibility, human scale, walkability, sense of control and identity, a pleasant microclimate, a smaller carbon footprint, and greater biodiversity. It makes me pause and ask: how do we soften our relationship with the street (P60), with our neighbors, and with the broader community?   Rather than placing high expectations in emerging technologies, maybe we need more small, simple, human-centered solutions—gentle interventions that make urban life more respectful, connected, and enjoyable. “Softer may be smarter,” as Sim mentioned (P4). This approach echoes the thinking of Jeff Speck in Walkable City, Anthony Townsend’s ideas on slow data, and Jane Fulton Suri’s work in design ethnography. Together, they advocate for designing places—whether streetscapes (P121), townscales (P45), cityscapes, or servicescapes—that foster everyday comfort, convenience, conviviality, and community (P4).   More books and inspiration: https://lnkd.in/eCskR5yE

Quality City Experience ++ [important city planning principles to have in mind when making decisions on city development] The phrase "first life, then spaces, then buildings - the other way around never works" by Jan Gehl emphasizes the importance of prioritizing the needs and experiences of people before designing physical spaces and buildings. It suggests that successful urban planning and architecture should start with understanding the ways in which people live, work, and interact in a given environment. By focusing on creating spaces that enhance the quality of life and well-being of individuals, designers can ensure that buildings and structures are truly functional and meaningful. Ultimately, this approach leads to more sustainable and thriving communities.

The 23rd post in my "32 days of Case Studies in Retrofitting Suburbia" project. On the #homestretch! Case Study II.23: The Mosaic District, Merrifield, VA, USA The Mosaic District Mosaic District, built on the 31-acre site of a dead multiplex theater in an affluent suburb of Washington, DC, just outside the Beltway, is a compact "mosaic" of uses lining highly walkable streetscapes and an active town green anchored by a new arthouse cinema. Instead of strip malls designed to speed up transactions, Mosaic demonstrates the value of designing green mixed-use town centers for lingering and social experiences you can't get in the surrounding burbs or online. One primary goal in the LEED-ND Silver project was to intentionally design in a series of “third places” for people to gather and find community outside of home and work. EDENS leaders Jodie McLean and Bill C. Caldwell told us to urge every community and every developer to start by creating a gathering place, no matter how small. It might just be twinkling lights over picnic tables between two small businesses. If designed well, it can be the spark. Team: EDENS, RTKL, Nelsen Partners | Architects & Planners, House & Robertson Architects, MULVANNYG2 ARCHITECTURE, Fred Dagdagan, and Law Kingdon. Image: Mosaic District webpage on the Fairfax County Government Department of Planning and Development website; the primary gathering place Strawberry Park is in the foreground.   #RetrofittingSuburbia #urbandesign #urbandevelopment #regreening #reinhabitation #ImprovePublicHealth #DistruptAutomobileDependence #LeverageSocialCapitalforEquity ULI Australia Suburban Futures Mike Day Hatch | RobertsDay Ellen Dunham-Jones