Designing multi-family housing to boost social capital and psychological well-being

There is no more powerful correlate of human health and wellbeing than positive social relationships. Multi-family housing, through design, layout, and location, can exert a significant effect on local relationships, neighborhood trust and residents sense of belonging. We propose a program to gather, refine and illustrate the evidence linking design and social wellbeing in multi-family housing. Insights from environmental psychology, sociology and public health will be translated into accessible materials which will offer guidance for developers, builders, policymakers and the people who buy or rent homes in BC. Learnings will be shared in print and online.

Faculty Supervisor:

Lawrence Frank

Student:

Lili Friedler

Partner:

Happy City Lab Inc

Discipline:

Urban studies

Sector:

Management of companies and enterprises

University:

University of British Columbia