Community Wellbeing: A Framework for the Design Professions

There has been growing interest among governments, urban planners, designers, public health units, and other stakeholders in the design decisions that foster health, vitality, and wellbeing. Indeed, the design of our built environment impacts our health and wellbeing, with potentially long-term consequences on quality of life.

Community Wellbeing: A Framework for the Design Professions presents the findings of a collaborative research project between Signal49 Research and DIALOG, to develop a framework for defining and evaluating the built environment’s contributions to community wellbeing. The Framework was conceptualized based on the definition of community wellbeing, which encompasses the essential domains related to the social, economic, environmental, cultural, and political conditions identified by individuals and their communities as essential for them to flourish and fulfill their potential.

The Framework is essentially a guide for understanding the relationship of the physical environment and the wellbeing of people and natural systems.