Designing human habitats healthy enough to prescribe

Bax & Company’s Healthy Cities team has guided a group of expert urban practitioners to understand the power of prescribing green space and socialising for urban wellbeing. Organised by the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU), the workshop showed planners and health professionals how to use urban design as a first-choice treatment for mental illness […]

How Barcelona is designing its streets for health and happiness – Ideas That Happen

We are the only animals which build habitats that harm us. Eloi Juvillà, Director of Building and Logistics at the Diputacio de Barcelona, speaking on Ideas That Happen We recently sat down with Eloi Juvillà, Director of Building and Logistics at the Diputació de Barcelona, to learn how Barcelona is rethinking city design for healthy […]

Connectivity, Mobility, and Healthy Cities

The Healthy Cities Network aims to deepen the relationship between health and the urban environment, following a holistic approach by focusing on three overarching topics: greening and landscaping, mobility and connectivity, and lifestyle and sports. To gather expert advice for urban planners on improving health outcomes in cities, we are creating a series of three […]

Halfway Through Healthy Cities: Reflections and Revisions

The Healthy Cities Network has passed its halfway point in the project. To evaluate all we’ve done and look ahead at what’s to come, we’re taking this opportunity to reflect on our progress with the Mid-Term Reflection (MTR) process. by Lead Expert Dr. Sebastiaan van Herk Originally published: URBACT Healthy Cities Though the pandemic slowed […]

Reclaiming the Public Space for People and Nature

Originally published in ‘Mark and Focus: Building a Smart, Resilient, Nature-Based Future’, by Bax & Company’s Sofia Aivalioti. Cities are fascinating. They are the places where most of us live, work and grow. If cities are not designed for their people, then we are doing something wrong. What makes a city thrive? What makes a city […]

Gender Equal Cities are Healthy Cities

By Sofia Aivalioti, Amber De La Haye, Sebastiaan van Herk, and Marta Rofin Serra. What makes a city a healthy place to live, work, and socialise? And do planning needs differ depending on gender? For International Women’s Day this year we are exploring some key ideas of how urban planning can be used to foster […]

HEALTHY CITIES: Bridging Urban Planning and Health

By Sofia Aivalioti, Sebastiaan van Herk, Marta Rofin Serra and Amber De La Haye. Almost all urban planning policies and actions have an impact on human health. Think busy, polluting roads, unwalkable streets, or access to shops selling fresh fruit and vegetables. By baking health factors into every stage of the planning process, the HEALTHY […]

Making cities healthier, faster

The COVID-19 pandemic that has sent the world into lockdown has also affected, but not derailed, progress towards building healthier cities. In fact, it’s only under confinement that many people truly took stock of their living environment – their homes, streets and neighbourhoods – and appreciated the value of accessible green spaces. It was also […]

Preparing for a crisis and building healthier cities

Modern medicine has managed to either wipe out or control the infectious diseases that plagued humankind for so long. But when a new strain appears, such as COVID-19, it becomes clear that we are not always prepared to fully comprehend the threat level and respond accordingly. How can we better prepare our cities and people […]

Green public spaces for health and well-being

by Sebastiaan van Herk, Sofia Aivalioti, Karlien Sambell, Gregor Giannella & Kees Joosten Cities are starting to apply more nature-based solutions (NBS), aiming to enhance health, well-being, climate resilience and biodiversity. Urban planners and researchers are advancing in designing and valuing NBS, but with limited understanding of the actual positive impacts. NBS can mean much […]