DIALOG Chair Antonio Gómez-Palacio will present a session on the Community Wellbeing Framework at the 13th World Congress on Health and Design (WCDH) on Saturday, April 13, 2024, in Milan, Italy.
With this year’s theme of ‘Revitalizing Health by Salutogenic Design’, the congress will bring together the world’s foremost interdisciplinary network of architects, designers, health planners, engineers, public health scientists, physicians, and other leading industry experts, to explore the transdisciplinary design approach where architecture, psychology, and medicine intertwine and impact human health and wellbeing.
Event Details
Date: Saturday, April 13, 2024
Time: 9:30 a.m. CET
Location: Aula Magna, Politecnico di Milano, Piazza Leonardo da Vinci, 48, 20133 Milan MI, Italy
Urban Public Session: The Community Wellbeing Framework
DIALOG, in partnership with the Conference Board of Canada, collaborated on a multi-year research study to define community wellbeing and how it can inform the design of the built environment. The Community Wellbeing Framework sets out to understand, measure, and guide the creation of built environments that serves in the interest of the wellbeing of the community.
The resulting Framework is an open-source methodology for designing the built environment within the interests of the wellbeing of a community, or occupants of a place. Conceptualized based on the definition of community wellbeing, the social, environmental, economic, cultural, and political domains help guide design professionals, project stakeholders, and community members to make design decisions that positively contribute to wellbeing. The Framework is a guide for understanding the relationship of the physical environment and the wellbeing of people and natural systems.
The Framework helps to move forward the shift humanity is undergoing currently: the way health is prioritized today is unprecedented and the physical built environment is increasingly seen as a mechanism for improving public health and wellbeing. By figuring out how to define and evaluate ambiguous concepts like happiness, play, or resilience, designers of the physical environment can lead communities toward actionable plans.
Antonio’s presentation outlines tangible and practical opportunities to proactively improve wellbeing. He addresses creating the right conditions in the built environment for healthy lifestyle choices to take place, in a manner that can be readily implemented by design professionals and community builders.