A holistic approach to healthy communities

International design and technology firm, IBI Group, has been appointed as specialist advisor in support of the NHS England Healthy New Towns programme. Under the initiative, launched in March 2016, NHS England is working with 10 housing developments ‘to shape the health of communities, and to re-think how health and care services can be delivered’. Justin Harris, architect and Studio principal at IBI, explains the thinking behind the initiative. He discusses how IBI’s experience and research into how the non-visual aspects of the built environment – such as ‘soundscapes’, ‘semiotics’, ‘atmospherics’, and ‘sensescopes’ – can help to develop ‘healthy neighbourhoods’, and will enable the practice to make an effective contribution to the programme. 

The NHS England Healthy New Towns initiative – for which IBI Group has been appointed as specialist advisor – sets out to rethink how we live, and how healthcare services can be delivered, and will take an ambitious look at improving health through the built environment. The initiative will represent a step change in how we consider and define healthy places, and, in multiple ways, bring together People, Place, and Wellbeing.

Working in collaboration with the ‘World Health Organization Collaborating Centre’ at the University of the West of England, sustainability consultant Greengage, and ‘wellness consultant’, Anni Hood, our role at IBI will be to integrate Evidence Based Design (EBD) approaches into the proposals formulated by the teams selected as NHS Healthy New Towns, ‘ultimately promoting community wellbeing’.