What is a healthy place? Models for cities and neighbourhoods

ABSTRACT

What is a healthy place? Focusing on the scale of the neighbourhood and city, this paper outlines six overlapping types of environments that chart the range of current thinking: healthy built environments, collaborative healthy cities, age-friendly/all-age communities, child-friendly communities, healthcare industrial cities, and smart health environments. The first three are based on a public health perspective and the fourth on child development concepts, with a comprehensive view. The last two deal mainly with the economy, personal information, and behaviour. If combined with the others, however, they might increase public interest and aid health monitoring and evaluation.

Acknowledgments

Thanks to Ashley Tannebaum for comments on the draft manuscript. This paper draws on a decade and a half of work of the Healthy Places Design Lab, Health and Places Initiative, and Design for Health. I thank all my numerous collaborators.

Disclosure statement

An early version of this paper was prepared as background material for the Evergrande Agricultural New Town Research Project, Office for Urbanization at Harvard University.