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Podcast interview on Green Urbanist

Green Urbanist podcast image showing Helen Pineo. Episode number 62.

In this podcast, Ross O’Ceallaigh of the Green Urbanist interviews Helen Pineo. This conversation covers personal reflections about urban living and the basics of healthy urbanism. We spend a lot of time talking about how healthy urbanism relates to planetary and ecosystem health. We also get into details on the ‘business case’, new models of development and a mutual love of community-led housing.

Listen to the podcast and read more on the Green Urbanist substack for Episode 62 using the link below.

Listen to the podcast
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Healthy Built Environment standards

Callway, Pineo and Moore (2020), Figure 1 Conceptualisation of the negotiation of HBE standard and organisational intentions in built environment projects.

International healthy built environment standards have emerged over the last decade as a key trend in property development, including WELL and Fitwel. As these standards are different to the more established sustainability standards, e.g. BREEAM and LEED, we held interviews with developers, planners, residents, and design teams to understand how they perceive and apply built environment standards.

There are some challenges with the implementation of healthy built environment standards that we wanted to understand in more detail. For instance, although there is some evidence that these standards may improve occupant health, real estate values, and development quality, there may be a lack of sophistication in their implementation meaning that the adopted standard does not achieve as much benefit as could otherwise be realised on the specific development. Policy-makers may have difficulty understanding the distinction between alternative standards or frameworks, specifically how they define and target health and sustainability intentions. Furthermore, developers may not fully comply with standards and some negative health impacts could be created if integrated design measures are not used.

This paper concludes with two calls to action, first that ‘standards need to better address the processes of negotiation that take place at different times and places in a project cycle’ and second, that ‘there is a need to encourage applicants to move on from principally using standards to legitimise existing practice, towards seeing standards as strategic tools that should promote internal reflection and responses to healthy built environments and wider sustainability objectives’.

Read: Callway R, Pineo H, Moore G. Understanding the Role of Standards in the Negotiation of a Healthy Built Environment. Sustainability. 2020; 12(23):9884.

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Healthy housing policy review

Exposures in 'Policies, regulations & legislation promoting healthy housing: a review' (WHO, 2021)

The World Health Organization has long supported research and guidance on healthy housing. On behalf of the WHO, we conducted an international review of policies that would support healthy housing. The outputs include an interactive pdf and a policy repository. This work supports countries with implementation of the WHO Housing and health guidelines. 

The interactive report covers the following exposures: overcrowding, low and high indoor temperatures, home injuries, accessibility, water quality, air quality, damp and mould, noise, asbestos, lead and radon.

The image below from the report shows the range of policy approaches and instruments that were reviewed. Each section contains evidence reviews and global policy examples, alongside links to other WHO resources.

Reproduced from WHO 2021, Figure 3.1 ‘Overview of Policy Approaches and Instruments Identified in the Review’

Read: ‘Policies, regulations & legislation promoting healthy housing: a review‘

Published January 2021

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Bullitt Center

Bullitt Center. Image: Helen Pineo, 2019

The Bullitt Center office building in Seattle, USA pioneered deep green design methods that pushed the boundaries of sustainable architecture. Owned and operated by the Bullitt Foundation, the building is described by Robert Peña and colleagues as catalysing ‘a shift in outlook from the notion of buildings as machines for living to that of buildings as living systems’ (1). Collaborating with the city and a local university, the Bullitt Center project led to a new Living Building Pilot Programme in Seattle and detailed post-occupancy evaluation data to continually improve the functioning of the building for people and the planet.

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies and this case is adapted from the full version in Healthy Urbanism.(2)

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Barton Park

Pond and new housing at Barton Park. Image: Helen Pineo 2021.

Providing 885 new homes and community services, the Barton Park development is an extension to Barton, a neighbourhood of around 1,500 homes three miles from Oxford city centre. An important goal for Barton Park, one of the NHS Healthy New Towns demonstrator sites, was to integrate the new and existing communities through the provision of shared social infrastructure and amenities. The population of the Barton and nearby Sandhills wards faces significant health inequalities resulting from high deprivation. The project aims to provide equal opportunities to all Barton residents to achieve good physical and mental health outcomes.

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies and this case is adapted from the full version in Healthy Urbanism.(1)

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Grow Community

Shared spaces encourage social interaction at Grow Community. Image: Helen Pineo, 2019.

Grow Community is a planned residential community of 142 homes on an 8-acre site on Bainbridge Island in Washington State, USA. The investors pushed for high sustainability credentials and a range of affordable property types. This push, alongside early engagement with local residents, led the project team to design the development using the One Planet Living Framework, a guide to reduce the community’s ecological footprint and facilitate health and happiness. The masterplan outlined a compact community with shared gardens and greenspaces, energy efficient buildings, and reduced water use. In addition to housing, the development includes a community centre, early childhood centre, and approximately 2 acres of open space and community gardens.

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies and this case study was written by Elizabeth Cooper and Helen Pineo.

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Stone34

Outdoor eating at Brooks Sports Headquarters Building (Stone34). Image credit: LMN Architects

Stone34 is a five-storey, mixed-use commercial building in Seattle, USA on Stone Way between 34th and 35th streets in the Fremont neighbourhood. The building was designed according to the City of Seattle’s Deep Green Program (now Living Building Pilot Program) which is aligned with the International Living Future Institute (ILFI). Stone34 is certified LEED Platinum. The building uses around 75 percent less energy and water than similar projects. It was envisaged to act as an urban “trailhead” to Seattle’s popular Burke-Gilman, a 43 km cycling and walking trail. The project’s goals to support both physical activity and sustainability across the building and site were further strengthened when the main tenant, Brooks Sports, a company that makes running shoes and attire, was secured.

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies and this case study was written by Elizabeth Cooper.

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UniverCity Childcare Centre

Playground at UniverCity Childcare. Image: Martin Tessler

The UniverCity Childcare Centre at Simon Fraser University (SFU) was the first childcare centre in the world to obtain the Living Building Challenge (LBC) standard. It was an early adopter of the LBC standard, which originated in British Columbia. The Centre is linked to the SFU Faculty of Education for research on the provision of innovative childcare. After the building was completed and in operation, university researchers engaged with staff at the Childcare Centre in a community of practice model to study and inform the use of the building itself as part of the children’s ‘play-based holistic learning’ about sustainability.(1)

The design process was informed by sustainable building practices and the Childcare Centre’s adoption of the Reggio Emilia pedagogical three ‘teachers’ model whereby educators are considered to be the more than teaching staff, but also the environment in which the children learn and the community in which they live. Inclusive design processes helped the project team understand how children and staff wanted to use the space to support education and development.

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies.

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Mariposa

Mariposa apartments. Image: Denver Housing Authority.

Mariposa is located on the site of a former public housing project in Denver, Colorado. The project is a master planned development of a transit-oriented mixed-income housing, senior housing, retail, and common outdoor areas (e.g. playgrounds and gardens) that was led by the Denver Housing Authority (DHA). The development was planned to maximise the amount of residential, commercial and recreation space that is within roughly 15-minutes walking distance from public transportation. The re-development aimed to create a connected and healthy place through improved access to physical, economic, and social amenities.  The goal of the master plan was to redevelop the area while preserving the positive qualities of the existing South Lincoln neighbourhood.

The DHA phased the redevelopment project over seven years to reduce the displacement of families, the elderly and disabled residents of the former public housing project. Before redevelopment, the 17.5-acre (7 hectares) Mariposa site was home to approximately 250 residents living in brick-clad apartments built in 1954. As of 2017, there were about 1,500 residents living in the same area. Of these 1,500 residents approximately 48 percent were returning residents, in comparison to the typical 10 to 15 percent for similar ‘raze and rebuild’ projects.(1)

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies and this case study was written by Elizabeth Cooper.

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Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park

Open space and surrounding residential blocks in East Village.

The Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park (QEOP) is large-scale, master planned urban regeneration project on the site of the 2012 London Olympic and Paralympic Games. The vision of the project was to use the opportunity of the London 2012 Games to create a dynamic new metropolitan centre for London and an inspiring place where people want to – and can afford to – live, work and visit.

Totalling 560 acres (226 hectares), the QEOP includes plans for up to 6,800 new homes and 91,000 square metres of new commercial space around substantial green and blue infrastructure. The open space includes ‘35km of pathways and cycleways, 6.5km of waterways, over 100 hectares (ha) of land capable of designation as Metropolitan Open Land, 45ha of Biodiversity Action Plan Habitat, 4000 trees, playgrounds and a Park suitable for year-round events and sporting activities’ (1). There are five residential neighbourhoods led by different private sector partners, in addition to East Village (the former Athletes’ Village), including Chobham Manor, East Wick, Sweetwater, Marshgate Wharf and Pudding Mill.

QEOP borders four East London boroughs, Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Newham and Waltham Forest, each with high levels of deprivation and comparatively poor health outcomes. Regeneration plans in each borough aimed to transform the site’s post-industrial landscape and create better living conditions for residents. The London Legacy Development Corporation (LLDC) is the official planning authority of the Olympic Park and was established in 2012 as a mayoral development corporation under the power of the Localism Act 2011. All the planning applications submitted within the boundaries of the Growth Area are processed by the LLDC instead of the local boroughs. This mechanism ensures an integrated approach to the ongoing development in a way which aims to be responsive and accountable to local concerns while reflecting the area’s strategic significance for London.

This project is featured as one of our healthy urban development case studies.

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