Happy Cities: Making Wellbeing Quantifiable

David Green leads Perkins+Wills Cities + Sites practice worldwide and focuses on master planning and urban design projects

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Ensuring the wellbeing of mankind has become a key objective for most organisations. From utilising recyclable materials and decreasing carbon footprints to helping citizens make better health choices, the health and wellness considerations are prevalent in the architecture industry.

The simple idea that happiness or fulfilment comes more from experience than materialistic tendencies serves as a significant contributor to the overall experience of life. How one perceives the experience of life affects one’s overall state of happiness and wellbeing. This idea, originally the foundation for planning cities, has emerged in recent years due to the availability of data that aligns planning and public health outcomes. It might be considered the digital version of John Snow’s maps tracking cholera in 19th-century London.