Building Social Connections: Toolbox of design actions to nurture wellbeing in multi-unit housing

Our neighbours are our closest source of social support and connection. Socially connected homes and neighbourhoods nurture greater physical and mental health, support healthy aging, build social trust between diverse residents, and increase our resilience during climate and other crises.   

The homes we live in play a significant role in encouraging and creating opportunities for positive neighbourly interactions. In particular, evidence shows that the design and location of common spaces in multi-unit housing—including common amenities, circulation spaces, and outdoor areas—can make a big difference in our connections with neighbours, and are closely connected to the social wellbeing of residents. 

As governments across Canada push to build denser housing faster, it is critical that we design new homes to support community wellbeing, social connection, healthy aging, sustainability, and inclusion for everyone.

Introducing: The Building Social Connections Toolkit and Case Studies

Over 2023 and 2024, Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, and researchers from Simon Fraser University worked together with five local municipalities, one First Nation and dozens of other organizations to explore what planners could do to move towards policies that guide and incentivize  sociable multi-unit housing design.

Building on the learnings from this project, Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective published a design toolkit  of evidence-based strategies to nurture social wellbeing multi-unit housing (2024), as well as an age-friendly supplement (PDF, 2025). The design principles and actions equip policy makers, planners, designers, and community members to build and advocate for more socially connected, inclusive communities, drawing on over a decade of research and engagement  with residents and housing industry actors—including non-profit housing providers, city planners, architects, and market developers. 

Happy Cities also collaborated with Hey Neighbour Collective and Renewable Cities to create three complementary case studies for those who want to dive further into example buildings and policy precedents.

• Housing case studies: Volume 1 (PDF)
• Housing case studies: Volume 2 (PDF)
• Policy case studies (PDF)

In the face of growing challenges—including an acute housing affordability crisis, extreme weather, social isolation, and an aging population—our social connections are one of the strongest resources we have to chart a more sustainable, resilient path forward.

How to use the design toolkits

These two related toolkits present design opportunities to nurture social well-being in housing for people of all ages, backgrounds, abilities, household sizes, and incomes. The design areas are broken down into four toolboxes:

1. Social building edges
2. Social circulation
3. Social amenities
4. Social homes 

These actions are designed to be flexible and applicable across the spectrum of multi-unit housing, including townhouses, multiplexes, low-rise apartments, and high-rise towers—and tenure forms—both market and non-market. These toolboxes act as a starting point for both designers and policymakers and should be considered in relation to local policies, building context and typology, budget, and the anticipated needs of future residents.

Learn more about the evolution of this work here: