BuildWell: Reimagining Future Housing Developments for Health and Sustainability

Our vision for the BuildWell network is to connect a diverse multidisciplinary community of researchers, practitioners, publics and policymakers to champion putting health and wellbeing at the heart of new residential estate footprint design and building. With the UK facing a housing crisis, particularly in terms of a significant lack of affordable housing, the newly elected UK government targets to build 1.5 million homes. Many of these houses are proposed to be constructed on greenbelt land, or newly termed “greybelt”, which refers to poor quality and underutilised parts within the greenbelt. This presents a unique environmental and social opportunity to explore how the positioning, design and build of new housing can enhance benefits associated with the outdoor environment for physical and mental health and wellbeing. Housing estates are multifunctional spaces where people live, work and play. They are made up of several areas, including housing of differing densities, landscaped gardens, sustainable urban drainage systems (i.e. ponds), playgrounds and greenspace. The BuildWell network will explore how new housing developments can be designed and built to optimise the benefits for the health and wellbeing of people living there, and how lessons can be learnt for how existing housing estates can be retrofitted. Through collaboration BuildWell will (a) connect researchers and practitioners working in fields relevant housing estate environments in an inclusive manner. (b) critically assess the evidence base on housing development and health and wellbeing, emphasising two critical aspects; firstly, the role of Nature-based Solutions in providing sustainable ecosystems and multiple benefits for society; and secondly that these benefits are felt equally by all community members living in and/or near the housing estate; and (c) create a safe, creative and positive environment to catalyse innovative thinking to co-produce practical recommendations with stakeholders to enhance future design and build. To achieve these goals, BuildWell will take an innovative approach of “learning through doing” by organising a series of experiential learning events, such as site visits, scaled plug and play physical models and photographic installations will be used to “do networking differently” with the aim of catalysing innovative thought, combining fresh perspectives and developing an integrated holistic understanding of the synergies and trade-offs relating environments, health and wellbeing, and housing development design and build. Through fostering a multidisciplinary, inclusive, and safe spaces network, we hope to achieve both practice and policy impact and a sustainable legacy. Many disciplines and sectors can make contributions to making housing environments better places for people to live. BuildWell will breakdown siloes by having diverse membership and actively getting members from different disciplines to work together to produce a shared understanding of the issues and the recommendations for future strategic investment. By involving industry practitioners and policy makers in these discussions, these recommendations are more aligned to policy and feasible to be implemented. Ultimately, the most important beneficiary of the BuildWell network will be the people living in the next generation of housing estates, who will be empowered through inclusion in the network to shape their own healthy housing environment futures.