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Human Health, Building Health, Environmental Health

Updated: Dec 17, 2021


My ideal client wants to develop a new neighborhood district, so-called a city within a city by regenerating the urban design. We were discussing that how important it is to consider the well and wellness of urban design for residents, besides it being sustainable and LEED.


I was trying to convince them that one of the factors that we have to focus on is poverty, which is to find a solution for poverty within the new ”city” so that it can become an algorithm for future urban designs or regenerations. The site my client has is struggling with poverty but has so many potentials for being a good place. It has nature, water, connectivity, but still lacks leisure. There are a lot of abandoned buildings that became shelters for homeless people. So as an adaptive reuse designer, I suggested starting by reusing the abandoned buildings. These buildings had should one day and it’s forgotten. We should bring back the history of the spaces so that we can pass it on to future generations. We have to invest in retails and businesses so locals can start working and slowly erasing poverty from the community. By adapting the forgotten spaces, we bring back the palimpsest and create a new layer on that and that will create an urban environment that will work well.

We should invest in clean water and easy access to clean water, light, nature, lees vehicular district, and more pedestrian district. This way we invite people to walk more and have opportunities to exercise and stay healthy. we should add public transportations and biking and walking trails within the nature. Air will be cleaner and nature will be replaced with vehicle pollution. Buildings will be adaptive reuse buildings that blend the past with the present and future. If we help people in poverty and make a safe and healthy place for them to live, giving them livable places, we can increase the potential of a neighborhood, district, or city to be healthier, wealthier in terms of being well. Besides architectural and urban design, there are other actions that will greatly improve planning for inclusive and sustainable and well urban development:


  • Support the formation of national urban development commissions — spurred by intergovernmental, international bodies — that are charged with developing plans for inclusive and sustainable urban development.

  • Create regional planning funds to support participatory, multi-stakeholder spatial planning initiatives at the regional level.

  • Pursue improved and transparent planning practices through large-scale, public-private partnerships.

  • Build government capacity to maximize public benefits from public land sales, granting real estate development rights to private landowners and public-private partnerships.

  • Develop a diagnostic tool to assess and improve urban planning and governance for inclusive and sustainable urban development.

  • Identify and invest in best practices and processes for urban planning.

  • Invest in community-based organizations and their intermediary support organizations.

  • Invest in training and nurturing local entrepreneurs who are dedicated to meeting the market demands of the poor and who will employ them in local businesses.

  • Set up innovation and social venture capital funds to test the risks and returns of “mezzo-level” (as opposed to microcredit) lending to organizations focused on housing, community infrastructure, and small business expansion in slums.


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Amanda Burcham
Amanda Burcham
Dec 06, 2021

If you could choose any city or area to develop a new neighborhood district, where would you choose?

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