Author: Alvaro Valera Sosa | BHL Building Health Lab

Research and training to build Urban Health! ... I started doing architecture in 2002 and for health settings since 2007. My early career task was to work with many hospitals in my home country Venezuela where patient and staff-centered designs are completely absent. Years later, I trained at the Berlin School of Public Health at Charité Medical University to learn scientific methods that could support building design processes targeting better health outcomes. Today I apply this knowledge in urban planning at the neighborhood level to accelerate the achievement of sustainable development goals. At TU-Berlin, I have the opportunity of contributing to capacity-building in Urban Health at the Urban Management Program and the Department of Design and Building Sciences led by Prof. Jacob van Rijs. My activities also include being an editor of the Cities & Health Journal, which allows the production and dissemination of urban health knowledge. As an independent researcher, I founded the Building Health Lab in 2018, a Think & do Tank with the mission of applying health strategies to reach sustainable urban developments. The Lab bridges academia with practice using a framework called UrbanCare, a pedestrian health approach with transdisciplinary problem-solving techniques. Through the UrbanCare project, our team helps other researchers develop case studies across Europe to support urban ecosystem regeneration and human health at the neighborhood level. Globally, we also collaborate with climate and health advocacy groups such as the Global Health Hub. At BHL, we constantly seek partners in academia and industry to exchange knowledge and push forward #UrbanCare and #PedestrianHealth More info: www.buildinghealth.eu