THINK PIECES ARCHIVE

Increase Worker Engagement, Increase Business Performance

A recent article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) summarized a longitudinal study conducted across six years in 80 hospitals, including info from 92,000 health workers, in Western Australia that found increased worker engagement led to positive outcomes for the hospital, including hospital costs, treatment effectiveness, and the level of hospital-acquired infections. For example, our longitudinal analysis revealed that a small (1%) increase in employee engagement leads to a 3

Railroads to Community Engagement

(photo courtesy of City of Durham via the linked article) Many cities are taking their old railroad or rail car lines and turning them into pedestrian trails that connect their communities. Most recently, the city of Durham, NC, has received $9mil in federal funding to build a 1.75-mile trail connecting West Village, Duke Park and Old North Durham. “It will serve people commuting, biking to work, to school, going out to shop or eat, but it will also be a place where on weeken

Community Centers: How to Engage Sustainability and Community’s Resilience Through Design?

According to an article of Canadian Architect, now, more than ever, design should focus on community and the mitigation of climate change. The design sector, especially space’s design, should promote health and security for communities, by strengthening them and by fostering resilience. “As architects and designers behind civic facilities, we have the unique opportunity to radically influence the strength of a community. These are facilities, after all, that specifically touc

Community: Child Centered Urban Design

Brookings Edu published a report about the importance of child friendly urban design. According to this study, by 2030, 60% of the world’s population will be under 18 years old. But sometimes urban planners, developers and architects don’t take into account families and children when it comes to create city-wide policies that impact health, wellbeing, transportation, air and noise pollution. “A critical component of child-friendly urban planning is prioritizing opportunities

UNStudio Report: The broader scope of community building and placemaking in post-pandemic urbanity

UNStudio, a full-service architecture design network in three locations, posted a recent report regarding community. The work looks to explore the future of community building, and placemaking in a post-pandemic urban environment. According to UNStudio for urban planning and architecture, both community building and placemaking have become the most important themes. “Prior to the Covid19 pandemic, facilitating the creation of communities related mainly to the workplace and th

Norge-area’s Walnut Farm: State’s first zero energy ready new home community

The Virginia Gazette released a recent article that shares information about an initiative called ‘Walnut Farms’. Walnut Farm is a concept created by Jay Epstein, president of Healthy Communities, a Williamsburg-based home builder-developer that looks to construct “state-of-the-art homes in sustainable neighborhoods”. Let’s revise some features of this residential development that looks to reduce the home’s carbon footprint: Houses are built to exceed customary homebuilding

How Urban Design can have an impact on wellbeing and health

Medical News Today shared an article that explains how urban and housing design has a big impact on human health. Everyone should have access to a standard of living adequate for health and well being, this includes housing, clothing, food, social services and others… “Researchers have shown that adequate housing has intimate links to a person’s physical and mental well-being. According to the Executive Summary of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Housing and Health Guide

Community: Projects that seek for the integration of systematically marginalized communities

New City Design shared a recent article about Open Architecture Chicago which is a derivation of The Open Architecture Collaborative, a non profit organization that focuses on building projects regarding community. This group acts as an intermediary between systematically marginalized communities and professional practitioners. “More specifically, the organization develops educational programming for designers and architects to grow as leaders and changemakers, while also pro

Community: What experts have to say about improving cities with design?

Architectural Digest published a review about ‘The Ideal City’, a book by Space 10 which is IKEA’S research and design lab in Copenhagen. Architects, designers and urban planners contributed to this book by giving their thoughts on how cities of the future should be. Pandemic and climate change are some of the biggest concerns that need to be addressed Let’s review 5 ways to create ‘Better Cities’ shared by the book: Making Cities more resourceful: According to experts, the c

Community: What Does Building Resiliency Look Like for Urban Landscapes

Archinect published a post that narrates a recent project of The University of California, Los Angeles Department of Architecture and Urban Design’s faculty that looks to solve challenges between urban conditions and land development. Climate change is challenging architectures, designers and urban planners to create land use design strategies that make possible the effective coexistence of humans and nature. The research looks to understand and find new ways to balance human

Community Planning Can be Managed Outside City Halls?

In Groton City, Connectitud, the City Planning and Economic Development Department is launching a series of community design workshops in order to engage community members to share ideas and needs for the main commercial areas of the city. The Day released an article about the program used in that city: placemaking, street designs and the reactivation of different neighbourhoods. “Placemaking is a ‘multi-faceted approach to plan and design public spaces’ and ‘capitalizes on l

Building Community Through Design

Public Square a CNU Journal shared a recent article that illustrates 10 reasons to build community through design. Are cities designed to bring us apart or closer? Interesting question to address. According to experts, when urban spaces have great public spaces and neighbourhoods it brings people together. “We build cities that bring us together or push us apart. "Gated communities" are an obvious example of building to isolate, but other methods are also common. Streets tha

‘Let’s Talk Streets’: The initiative that looks to engage marginalized communities of Madison

‘Let’s Talk Streets’ is an initiative carried out by the Department of Transportation in Madison, Wisconsin. Madison 365 Media made a recent article about the project and pointed out some interesting thoughts about its impact on communities. “ ‘Let’s Talk Streets’ is a kick-off event to engage our Madison communities – particularly our diverse Madison communities — around what’s called the ‘complete and green streets’ initiative the city is taking on. It’s really a redevelopm

How Sustainable Urban Design can Connect Community and Nature?

The Daily Journal Of Commerce published an article about urban development that narrates a recent initiative carried out by different architects and urban planners to achieve the development of the civic center, located within the city of Beaverton, Oregon. “Ankrom Moisan — specializing in architecture, interior design, planning and brand — led the public/private partnership between the city and private developers. In collaboration with Place Landscape Architects and UrbanLen

Design Trust Launches a Major Initiative to Empower Community and Public Health Across NYC

The Design Trust for Public Space started an initiative called ‘The restorative City: Building Community Wellness through Public Space’ in which the main purpose is to connect health equity with design and to also include the environment as a key factor for public policies. The main objective is to start receiving and sharing ideas from different sectors or actors to enhance community action through NYC’s five boroughs. The Design Trust for Public Space looks to unleash the p

Community: How to build adaptive public spaces for communities in pandemic and beyond?

‘Adaptative Public Spaces: Places for People in the Pandemic and Beyond’ is a report recently released by Knight Foundation and the global urban design firm Gehl. The document revealed, with a data analysis, the importance of considering public spaces as a priority when it comes to post pandemic society integration and interaction. Community engagement is a key factor for understanding space’s life cycle. Promoting the Community's active role in the design and governance proc

How Urban Design can Improve Communities?

Urban Planning and design have an important value when it comes to community. The Edward J. Boustein School of Planning and Public Policy hosted different panel discussions to talk over the key role of spatial planning to cover the needs of various social and cultural heritages. Design needs to be about people, the investment on the environment is important, but in order to create community, the center of every plan or action must take in consideration either people in the sp

Community: How Downtowns are Helping Businesses Reopen

Cities are having to adapt to the new COVID world meaning they can't go slow in changing how they cooperate with businesses in using public space in downtown areas. For instance, in Dallas, the city is making permanent its Parklet program to help businesses move their offerings outside. "That program allowed 19 establishments to transform street right-of-way into playful patios and was so successful that the city council voted to extend it last December." This was a quick res

Each City Department has a Staff Member Located in at Least two Different Sites

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Alternative Workplace Strategies Optimize Real Estate Usage and Reduce Capital Expenditure

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