Design Forum: Cities for Health, Happiness, and Prosperity

Together with Professor John Spengler, Akira Yamaguchi Professor of Environmental Health and Human Habitation at the Department of Environmental Health, and Michelle A. Williams, dean of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, the D-Lab hosted a Design Forum to discuss Cities for Health, Happiness, and Prosperity. On May 2019, 30+ researchers and faculty from across the Harvard University came together to explore the uplifting topic of how urban design might promote health, happiness, and prosperity of people and the environment. 

The D-Lab was honored to have a Thai delegation from Magnolia Development Corporation (MQDC) joining activities, and sharing their aspirations for Forestias, a progressive mixed-use development in Bangkok. Hands on activities were designed based on frameworks from the Whole View Model to explore collaborative research opportunities to evaluate how urban forms and policies promote happier citizens. 

Background

Throughout history, there have been alternate visions of what a city should be, whom it should serve, and its role in the culture from which it grew. Some visions have addressed pragmatic challenges like health and defense. Others have been more symbolic than pragmatic, using design to represent a government’s imperial power, or using architecture to signal that a region had entered the modern world. Most of these visions do not reach their goals because they focus almost exclusively on physical design of streets, parks, and houses; they do not address how people work, learn, play, and carry out activities of daily life. As evidences emerges on connections between health and nature, building materials and hormone disruption, social isolation, climate change and vulnerability, we must look again at our build environments and redesign our cities to promote health, happiness, and prosperity for all.