Housing That Connects Us: Housing design policies to support wellbeing for all
Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, and Simon Fraser University are working with six local governments in Metro Vancouver to co-create policies for social wellbeing in multi-unit housing.
Co-led in six jurisdictions in Metro Vancouver
Hey Neighbour Collective and Happy Cities are co-leading this three-phase project, in partnership with Simon Fraser University. Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective have collected substantial evidence over the last several years on design and programming strategies to inform inclusive, ‘sociable’ housing policy at the municipal level. We are excited to continue applying this research to practice through this Building Social Connections project.
From July 2023 to June 2024 we will be working with six jurisdictions in Metro Vancouver to co-create new design policies to support wellbeing for residents in multi-unit housing. This work comes at an ideal time for the region, building on Metro 2050 and ensuring that new, denser housing contributes to happier, healthier communities for all.
This project includes three phases
- Phase 1: Measuring the impact of the City of North Vancouver’s Active Design Guidelines
- Phase 2: Co-creating housing design policies to support wellbeing in multi-unit housing
- Phase 3: Developing the Building Social Connections policy and design toolkit
What do we mean by social wellbeing?
Social wellbeing includes elements such as a sense of belonging and inclusion, and how satisfied a person feels in their social relationships and connections—with family, friends, neighbours, and the wider community. It contributes to a person’s overall wellbeing, and is closely linked to health and happiness.
Global research has highlighted the importance of addressing our current loneliness and isolation epidemic. In Canada, a 2021 survey found that 1 in 10 adults experience loneliness frequently. The US Surgeon General recently released a report on the health impacts of isolation, equivalent to smoking a dozen cigarettes a day. Other countries, such as the UK are starting to address social isolation as a policy issue.
Currently, there is little guidance on how to design multi-unit buildings from a social wellbeing lens. Social wellbeing in housing is impacted by the design of common spaces, circulation spaces, and surrounding neighbourhood amenities, among others. Typically, local governments suggest minimum common area space and some construction elements that need to be included in a multi-unit residential project. These recommendations are generally not enough to realize the full social potential of shared spaces. By developing evidence-based policy and programming, cities can encourage the design of housing with shared spaces that facilitate positive neighbourly social connections, inclusion, and resilience.
Phase 1: Measuring the impact of the City of North Vancouver’s Active Design Guidelines
The City of North Vancouver’s Active Design Guidelines were developed in 2015. The Guidelines offer a unique, incentive-based approach to improving the design of multi-unit housing, focusing on elements of the built environment that encourage physical activity (such as wide, social stairwells), and health and social connections (such as community gardens and other thoughtfully designed amenities). However, the impact of this policy has not yet been evaluated. In this phase, we will engage residents, architects, planners, developers, and building managers to understand what elements are most important to consider when designing shared spaces in multi-unit housing. This phase includes engagement with residents through focus groups and a public survey, building audits of recently completed projects in North Vancouver, and interviews with industry partners.
Phase 2: Co-creating housing design policies to support wellbeing in multi-unit housing
Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective will provide a multidisciplinary learning opportunity to help the six jurisdictions create individual policies that encourage inclusive approaches to designing for wellbeing and social connectedness in multi-unit housing. At the end of the process, jurisdictions will create regulatory or incentive-based policies to encourage social design and programming for all types and tenures of multi-unit housing.
We will host four workshop sessions and two public webinars as part of this phase of work.
- Workshop 1: Building social connections
- Workshop 2: Housing for all
- Workshop 3: Affordability
- Workshop 4: Co-designing policies
Stay tuned for more information on the public webinars!
Phase 3: Developing the Building Social Connections policy and design toolkit
Following Phases 1 and 2, the findings from this process will be summarized in a policy and design toolkit, which will be publicly available. Stay tuned for the policy toolkit in the summer of 2024.
Learn more
What makes an age-friendy home?
A version of this article was originally published by Happy Cities in…
Designing resilient and connected housing: Illustrations and insights from our design jam
This article was originally posted on January 2, 2025 at SFU Renewable…
Building Social Connections in Practice
Communities across Canada face growing challenges—climate change, housing affordability, escalating construction costs,…
Designing Socially Connected Homes – small changes to make a big difference
This article, co-authored by Emma Avery (Urban Planner & Communications Specialist, Happy…
Webinar Recap: Design tools to support wellbeing in multi-unit housing with Happy Cities and Hey Neighbour Collective
On October 3rd, 2024, Hey Neighbour Collective hosted Housing That Connects Us…
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…
Untangling the affordability puzzle with Happy Cities and Chesterman Properties: webinar recap
Resources, recordings, presentations, and notable moments from the third in our ‘Housing…
North Vancouver active design study
Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, and SFU assessed the impact of the…
Project funders, supporters, and participants
This project received funding from Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation and the views expressed are those of the author and CMHC accepts no responsibility for them.