Gathering

As Wellington’s population grows, and increased pressure is applied on the housing sector, it is important to question to what extent housing developments explicitly consider the wellbeing of residents.

This research aims to investigate the positive effects of wellbeing from integration of urban housing and social community space to facilitate wellbeing and provide insights into how this can allow social inclusion and cohesion, to promote community-based living as a possible solution to the growing housing crisis.

This thesis explores design and spatial organisation methods that understand socially inclusive practices to develop interventions that meet users’ wellbeing needs. It rethinks multiple architectural processes through the perspective of wellbeing-based theory approaches. The work begins with identifying existing wellbeing principles, approaches and thinking. This learning is applied through speculative design exploration which investigates how spaces in the urban context can be used to create socially integrated dwelling and social spaces.

This research is relevant to all interested in developing urban housing, especially if focusing on building communities. It adds to the body of work on architecture and its effect on people’s wellbeing, from the individual to the community level, and opens avenues to exploring how integrated urban space can be used to create healthier cities.

The outcome of this thesis is to provide alternative approaches to applying existing evidence-based wellbeing research to inform robust design solutions.