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Home // News & Updates //

Happy Cities

Happy Cities is an urban planning, design, and engagement consulting firm and a certified B Corp. They work with clients around the world to create happier, healthier and more inclusive communities. www.happycities.ca

  • Illustrated graphic for the 'Housing That Connects Us: The affordability puzzle' webinar event.
    News | Webinars, Videos, Podcasts

    Join the next ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinar: The Affordability Puzzle

    By Hey Neighbour Collective 2024 . 04 . 122025 . 02 . 27

    The third in a three-part webinar series, ‘Housing That Connects Us: The affordability puzzle’ will hear from guest speakers on sociable design for multi-unit housing and how local governments can help support deepened affordability.

    Read More Join the next ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinar: The Affordability PuzzleContinue

  • Building social connection reports looms in the foreground of an illustrated urban space in North Vancouver.
    Reports

    North Vancouver active design study

    By Hey Neighbour Collective 2024 . 01 . 162024 . 03 . 19

    Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, and SFU assessed the impact of the City of North Vancouver’s Active Design Guidelines, identifying key lessons for supporting social connection in multi-unit housing.

    Read More North Vancouver active design studyContinue

  • Building social connections: Case studies to inspire socially connected multi-unit housing, report cover.
    Reports

    Building social connections: Case studies to inspire socially connected multi-unit housing

    By Hey Neighbour Collective & Happy Cities 2023 . 12 . 132024 . 02 . 11

    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.

    Read More Building social connections: Case studies to inspire socially connected multi-unit housingContinue

  • Rental housing operators and community building
    Reports

    Rental housing operators and community building

    By Keltie Craig 2023 . 12 . 132025 . 03 . 11

    Making Connections – a rental housing providers and neighbourly social connectedness research overview.

    Read More Rental housing operators and community buildingContinue

  • Group photo of the participants in the webinar joining by Zoom.
    News | Webinars, Videos, Podcasts

    Webinar recap: Housing that Connects Us #2, a conversation with UK innovators

    By Kit Braybrooke 2023 . 11 . 202024 . 06 . 20

    A round-up featuring video, slides, quotes and other resources.

    Read More Webinar recap: Housing that Connects Us #2, a conversation with UK innovatorsContinue

  • Multi-unit housing can be designed to meet residents’ needs at all stages of life. (Happy Cities)
    Reports

    Aging in the right place: Designing housing for wellbeing and older adults

    By Happy Cities & Hey Neighbour Collective 2023 . 11 . 142023 . 11 . 14

    Design strategies and research to support aging in the right place, from a collaborative multi-unit rental building project between Happy Cities, Hey Neighbour Collective, SFU’s Department of Gerontology, Concert Properties and Brightside Community Homes.

    Read More Aging in the right place: Designing housing for wellbeing and older adultsContinue

  • A graphic illustration showing a diversity of people in community, for the 'Housing That Connects Us' webinar.
    News | Webinars, Videos, Podcasts

    Join the next ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinar: a conversation with UK innovators

    By Hey Neighbour Collective 2023 . 10 . 192024 . 12 . 16

    Hear from two UK innovators about the connection between housing and wellbeing.

    Read More Join the next ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinar: a conversation with UK innovatorsContinue

  • A montage of slide decks including profile photos of Michelle Hoar, Laura Chow, and Madeleine Hebert.
    News | Webinars, Videos, Podcasts

    Webinar recap: Housing That Connects Us

    By Kit Braybrooke 2023 . 10 . 162025 . 03 . 04

    Please enjoy our round-up from the webinar, including a video, slides and other resources, along with a snapshot of a few of the most notable excerpts from our conversation.

    Read More Webinar recap: Housing That Connects UsContinue

  • A graphic illustration showing a diversity of people in community, for the 'Housing That Connects Us' webinar.
    News | Webinars, Videos, Podcasts

    Join our ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinar

    By Hey Neighbour Collective 2023 . 09 . 152024 . 12 . 16

    Hear from local experts about the health and climate rationale for intergenerational ‘sociable’ design.

    Read More Join our ‘Housing That Connects Us’ webinarContinue

  • An illustration of a happy community full of people and a building and recreational areas and some text floating on the left that says, "Building social connections."
    News

    Building social connections: Housing design policies to support wellbeing for all

    By Hey Neighbour Collective 2023 . 09 . 122026 . 02 . 25

    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.

    Read More Building social connections: Housing design policies to support wellbeing for allContinue

  • A group of audit participants sit around a table enjoying snacks and answering questions for a research study.
    News

    Cookies, research methods, and building audits

    By Sogol Haji Hosseini & Rojan Nasiri 2023 . 06 . 272023 . 06 . 27

    Our HNC research group, comprised of Simon Fraser University and Happy Cities members, explored how social interactions in multi-unit housing are influenced by the physical environment in 20 buildings in Vancouver and Victoria.

    Read More Cookies, research methods, and building auditsContinue

  • Three women sit outside at a cafe drinking coffee and laughing with a crowd of people in the background.
    News

    How density can boost wellbeing

    By Happy Cities 2023 . 06 . 232023 . 06 . 27

    People who oppose rezoning single-family neighbourhoods often claim that density is bad for our health and wellbeing. But what does the data really say? With the B.C. government’s recent announcement…

    Read More How density can boost wellbeingContinue

  • A montage of illustrations show people interacting.
    Practice guides

    Practice Guide: Learning from the community connectors

    By Happy Cities 2023 . 03 . 282025 . 11 . 23

    Practice guide for implementing resident-led social programming in multi-unit rental housing.

    Read More Practice Guide: Learning from the community connectorsContinue

  • A montage of illustrations of people doing activities together like volleyball and tea and remote connecting.
    Resources

    Seven lessons for implementing social activities in rental housing

    By Happy Cities 2022 . 12 . 162024 . 02 . 09

    Social activities for neighbours can help build a sense of community, boosting health, happiness, and resilience in multi-unit buildings.

    Read More Seven lessons for implementing social activities in rental housingContinue

  • Happy, healthy tenants benefit landlords, too
    News

    Happy, healthy tenants benefit landlords, too

    By Happy Cities & Hey Neighbour Collective 2022 . 12 . 062023 . 05 . 08

    Three ways rental housing providers can support social connectedness within their buildings.

    Read More Happy, healthy tenants benefit landlords, tooContinue

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Hey Neighbour Collective

HNC is a project of the SFU Morris J. Wosk Centre for Dialogue.

This license enables reusers to copy and distribute the material in any medium or format in unadapted form only, for noncommercial purposes only, and only so long as attribution is given to the creator.

Except where otherwise noted, content on this site is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. If you would like to re-publish one of our posts, please email us at tnfernan@sfu.ca.

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Land acknowledgment

Simon Fraser University acknowledges the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh Úxwumixw (Squamish), səl̓ilw̓ətaʔɬ (Tsleil-Waututh), q̓íc̓əy̓ (Katzie), kʷikʷəƛ̓əm (Kwikwetlem), Qayqayt, Kwantlen, Semiahmoo and Tsawwassen peoples on whose lands our three campuses reside.

Contact us

Michelle Hoar, Project Director
mhoar@sfu.ca
3300-515 West Hastings Street
Vancouver, BC V6B 5K3

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    • Interviews and Partner Snapshots
    • News and Inspiration
    • Living Together Symposium
  • Updates
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