The need for evidence
Evidence-based design is not a buzzword anymore. It is a global trend!
Agencies and governments seek to battle the climate and health crisis and reach sustainable development goals on time. Forefront planners and designers are under pressure to create urban landscapes that effectively improve climate, energy, and health outcomes and are proven bankable. These leaders urgently need scientific knowledge and transdisciplinary tools to understand site-specific urban ecosystems, citizen requirements, especially of the most vulnerable groups, and multigoal strategies critical in their practice and decision-making processes.
A 3-step solution that builds health ...
UrbanCare is end-to-end specialized support for planners and designers to create neighborhood projects that improve One health: planetary and human health. The focus is on retrofitting streets as public spaces with social and economic functions integral to urban life.
At Building Health Lab, we develop UrbanCare pedestrian planning platforms for coordinated management of municipal interdepartmental technical and economic resources.
UrbanCare platforms are customizable to reach sustainable development goals locally through:
• gathering neighborhood street data with citizen participation,
• deploying multimedia applications and tools to co-create integrated streetscape designs and,
• conducting stakeholder decision-making processes with a systems approach.
Neighborhood research
Our neighborhood research is a detailed review of available data about the neighborhood’s population and ecosystem.
In most cities, the neighborhood data is incomplete or missing, so we do the field research needed to understand the environmental and health situation.
We all use public spaces differently!
Data Viewers
Data Maps assist pedestrian planners and transdisciplinary teams in assessing and responding to climate stressors in an urban site.
Data Journeys invite citizens to navigate their neighborhood walkways, understand, and rate how urban environments affects the quality of life and health.
Decision-making Workshops
BHL Decision-making Workshops review the data gathered on users’ needs and the local ecosystem to prioritize which neighborhood public spaces to improve first and define where and how.
Citizens, specialists, and authorities discuss the findings and together find possible solutions that channel responsible investments towards sustainable development goals.
Our workshops are ideal for neighborhood regeneration, new urban development plans, or redeveloping institutional urban sites such as hospitals and university campuses.
BHL principles at work
At Building Health Lab, we generate knowledge to help city makers create bankable projects that improve the local climate, energy consumption, and public health.
○ Climate friendly & biodiverse landscapes help cure chronic diseases
○ Community care closer to people improve patient outcomes
UrbanCare,
neighborhood landscape regeneration for public health and energy management
Alvaro Valera Sosa (2021) Update September 2022
Project development
Alvaro Valera Sosa: Conceptualization, Design, Methodology, Investigation, Analyses
[email protected]
Webpage Credits
BHL Building Health Lab