With reference to the Eastern Porirua Regeneration Programme in New Zealand, this chapter explores the concept of wellbeing in the built environment; specifically, why it is important and how it is defined. The Eastern Porirua Regeneration Programme is the first urban development project that has been mandated and funded under the New Zealand Government's 2019 Wellbeing Budget, an important step towards embedding wellbeing in New Zealand public policy (1).
Why Wellbeing?
One of the most difficult challenges facing today’s world is how to accommodate the rapidly growing and crowding of urban populations in a way that supports and enhances inhabitants’ long-term health and wellbeing (2). The World Health Organisation (WHO) identifies worldwide urbanisation as one of the leading 21st century challenges to personal and public health. Cities have historically been a challenge for how human health and wellbeing can be delivered; they can contribute unique or intense stresses and adverse-effects to urban residents (3). Over half of the world’s population (55%) live in urban areas and this is predicted to increase to over two thirds (68%) by 2050 (4). A predicted 90% of New Zealand residents will live in urban areas by 2050, despite the fact that New Zealand is not considered to be densely populated by global comparison (See Figure 1).
Figure 1: The percentage of the New Zealand population in urban and rural areas(Source: United Nations, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Population Division (2018). World Urbanization Prospects: The 2018 Revision.)Urbanisation presents numerous and varied challenges to citymakers, from population growth and social change to housing affordability, population health and environmental crises. In the context of these complex challenges, cities and governments are taking the opportunity to apply new frameworks and methodologies to address urban issues. For example, decision-makers are recognising that “the health and wellbeing of their citizens is perhaps a city’s most important asset” (7) and thus are adopting approaches that nurture wellbeing and consider both people and place. Similarly, the global emergence of ‘smart city’ approaches reflects the complexity of our urban systems today, by creating a desire and necessity to embrace innovation to address urban issues. However, smart cities are not only about data and digital technology, as it is widely understood to be, rather, it is about better governance and enabling data driven decision making that promote better outcomes for citizens.
Human-centricity and agency is crucial to inform and guide the transformative use of data and technology (8). This is especially critical with governance, data collection and working collaboratively. An example is the City of Edmonton Smart City Strategy (Figure 2), which is about “working collaboratively with citizens and partners to optimise the use of data and technology, and influence the development of policies, programs, services and innovative funding models” (9). Here, a smart city framework became the foundation for delivering wellbeing outcomes, such as health and community connectivity, across the city.
Figure 2: Smart City Edmonton Framework (Source: City of Edmonton, undated)Many of the principles of smart cities transcend the framework itself. New Zealand is a leader in the emergent field of wellbeing governance. This budget was developed by integrating data around human, social and environmental capital, as well as the standard financial capital. The budget is to be used as a governance tool that better connects wellbeing assessment with the actions of the government (10). New Zealand is experiencing significant urban growth and population change, coupled with housing affordability, security and quality issues.
This situation has developed a mandate to pursue major urban regeneration projects to provide for the needs of current and future generations in local towns and cities. To achieve this, the New Zealand Government established Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities in late 2019, an urban development authority tasked with developing integrated urban communities and delivering a range of social, economic, and environmental outcomes (11). A case study of the first Kāinga Ora led urban regeneration project, informed by a wellbeing business case, is provided in this chapter to explore how the delivery of urban regeneration is intrinsically linked to the wellbeing outcomes experienced by residents.
Defining Wellbeing
Wellbeing is a broad term, generally associated with conceptions of human health, happiness and thriving - for people and communities - inclusive of the physical, mental, emotional, cultural and spiritual aspects of being (12). The concept of wellbeing is not new - it has been explored and broken down into various different constructs. Debate over the definition of wellbeing is believed to date back centuries, to the philosophers of ancient Greece whose definitions of wellbeing incorporated concepts of happiness, pleasure and flourishing. The Shorter Oxford English Dictionary includes as a definition of wellbeing: “The state of being or doing well in life; happy, healthy, or prosperous condition; welfare.” The New Zealand government has defined wellbeing as “when people are able to lead fulfilling lives with purpose, balance and meaning to them” (13). Further, the New Zealand Mental Health Foundation has identified five ways to wellbeing (14):
- Connect, me whakawhanaunga
- Give, tukua
- Take notice, me aro tonu
- Keep learning, me ako tonu
- Be active, me kori tonu
The collective understanding of wellbeing is still evolving. There is now growing evidence about the health and wellbeing impacts of the physical environment on not only physical, but also emotional, cultural, and spiritual dimensions of wellbeing (15). However, it has not been until relatively recently that wellbeing has gained attention in the built environment sector.
Measuring Wellbeing
To have any impact, any urban wellbeing agenda must inform and influence decision making and development outcomes in the built environment. The United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, introduced in 2015 under The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, lists the third goal as ‘Good Health and Wellbeing’ (16). Many governments world-wide are investing in measuring and quantifying their nation’s wellbeing. For example, Bhutan, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Wales, Australia, France and New Zealand, have variously introduced a “wellbeing approach” to their public policy and are implementing ways to measure and assess how well its wellbeing agenda is being achieved.
Wellbeing is difficult to quantify and measure. However, with its rise in popularity, numerous indexes and frameworks have been developed to define and measure wellbeing. These include the UN Development Index, Happy Planet Index, World Bank World Development Indicators database, Gallup-Healthways Wellbeing Index, the United Kingdom’s Measuring National Wellbeing Programme, and the OECD Better Life Index (17). In the context of the physical environment, there are numerous guidelines for achieving wellbeing through building and urban design. These include the The Happy Homes Toolkit (18), WELL Building Standard (19), GAPS (20) Framework, and The Community Wellbeing Framework (21).
On reviewing these it becomes clear that, although framed in many different ways, there are consistent themes that are common to all frameworks, these are:
- Social cohesion and community participation;
- Access and useability,
- Comfort, image, culture and values,
- Exposure to nature,
- Joy, surprise or delight (alongside ongoing learning), and
- Connection - connection to each other, connection to place and connection to ideas.
Wellbeing and the Built Environment
Wellbeing, in the context of the built environment, has been defined as physiological wellbeing, psychological wellbeing or social wellbeing and has implications at city, neighbourhood, and dwelling scales (22). The quality of the social fabric of the neighbourhood in which a home is embedded is directly connected to wellbeing and, further, the concept of social connection is key to urban wellbeing (23). Loneliness is acknowledged now as a public health ‘epidemic’ that directly affects physiological functions, increases risk for mental illness, and diminishes adherence to health-related behaviours (24). Sanguinetti highlights how shared or integrated services in housing developments can increase sociability and connection to nature (25). To support a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Housing and Health Guidelines (2018) highlight the importance of both the built and social or community aspects of places, and the immediate housing environment. Fundamentally, people are intrinsically linked to place: “the two central dimensions of wellbeing and the environment are people and places” (26).
Eastern Porirua, New Zealand
The current New Zealand government has adopted a broad agenda of wellbeing that commits to putting people’s wellbeing at the heart of all its policies. A 2019 Wellbeing Budget sought to broaden the focus beyond economic and fiscal policy. It adopts a Living Standards Framework as an important step towards embedding wellbeing in New Zealand public policy (27).
The Eastern Porirua Regeneration Programme is the first long-term, large-scale regeneration programme of its kind in New Zealand to be mandated by a Treasury Business Case (2018) under the Wellbeing Budget and in line with Treasury’s Living Standards Framework (LSF). This case provides Kāinga Ora - Homes and Communities (Kāinga Ora) with a unique opportunity to explore different ways to deliver affordable, sustainable housing for the communities in which they work. Kāinga Ora have responsibility for leading the delivery of physical redevelopment, including master planning, land development and sales, community infrastructure projects and the rebuilding and retrofitting of state homes. The regeneration programme is designed to deliver wellbeing outcomes for the people and place of Eastern Porirua. Adopting new approaches such as Community-led Housing and Community Wealth Building align well with the intention of the Wellbeing Business Case that mandated the Programme, and the government’s shift in focus away from housing delivery, towards creating strong communities.
The Ministry of Housing and Urban Development (28) has stated “there is a need to change the ways we develop our urban areas so that our cities can thrive, and this must happen at a scale and pace so every New Zealander can live in healthy and safe homes in sustainable communities.”A Regeneration Framework has been developed to guide the implementation of the Programme in line with the Wellbeing business case. It provides for wellbeing outcomes across a series of domains shown in Figure 3.
Figure 3: Wellbeing domains for Eastern Porirua Regeneration ProgrammeThese domains are reflected in the outcomes and objectives for the programme. How well the objectives of the programme are being achieved will be monitored and evaluated at different times throughout the lifecycle of the programme, to gain a comprehensive understanding of how the activities and interventions included in an urban regeneration programme, impact the wellbeing of residents and contribute to the global discourse about how well-designed neighbourhoods, benefit their inhabitants and contribute to the economic and social success of towns and cities. The hypothesis being tested, is that ‘both the physical and social structure of neighbourhoods are critical to their success’ (29).
Conclusion
Wellbeing has evidently become an influential agenda, and human-centred priorities are becoming increasingly valued across the built environment industry globally (30). In the past the value or function of cities were largely defined in terms of their built form and infrastructure, now cities worldwide are increasingly adopting more ‘human-centric’ approaches to development, placing higher value on the people that use and inhabit their city (31). Rapid global urbanisation and its associated urban challenges supports the case for supporting wellbeing, beginning with an understanding of the interrelationship between people and place. Namely, how an individual’s personal wellbeing (“individual wellbeing”) is affected by the social fabric, or overall wellbeing of a community (“community wellbeing”) at different scales (city, neighbourhood and home) and how the two are impacted by significant changes to the built environment, is therefore worthy of further discussion. As a relatively young country, when compared to others, New Zealand has the opportunity to define its urban future, and be an exemplar for the ways cities could function and contribute to the wellbeing of the people living in them.
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6. For statistical purposes, urban areas in New Zealand are defined as cities, towns and other conurbations comprising of 1,000 people or more. (Stats NZ).
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