Streets, sidewalks, parks, and plazas are the vital shared places of a city that combine to the stage of our everyday environment and public life: our public space. This space plays a fundamental role in shaping our happiness, as individuals and as communities. The combined impact of all qualities of the public space is expressed with the concept of urban happiness.
Understanding how the shared spaces influence our happiness and lived experiences is key to addressing happiness in public spaces. Unfortunately, a coherent understanding of how to combine major design considerations with urban-space ingredients to influence happiness is currently not available. As a consequence, our public space is often planned and designed without explicit consideration of citizens’ happiness.
The booklet aims to contribute to the awareness about the happiness impact of public space design decisions. Some ingredients refer to objective aspects of public space, and others to subjective. Some focus on physical qualities, others on social or organizational qualities. The overview of design ingredients was synthesized from research and expertise in urban planning and design, focusing on effective ingredients on happiness viewed through the lens of public spaces.
Read and download the booklet here
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