BuildWell:
BuildWell is a two-year UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project, running from January 2026, exploring how housing estates can be designed to better support health, wellbeing, and environmental sustainability.
Hosted by Heriot-Watt University in partnership with the University of York and Northumbria University, BuildWell brings together practitioners, policymakers, researchers, and community voices to rethink how new housing developments are planned and delivered.
At its heart, BuildWell is a collaborative network, connecting expertise across sectors to ensure that future neighbourhoods integrate green and blue infrastructure, promote equity, and create healthier places for people to live.
Nature-Based Solutions
Nature-based solutions use green and blue infrastructure, such as parks, trees, wetlands, and sustainable drainage systems, to address environmental challenges while improving human health and wellbeing.
In housing design, they can enhance biodiversity, reduce flood risk, support mental health, and create more liveable neighbourhoods.
Access to high-quality green space, safe streets, and healthy environments should not depend on postcode or income. BuildWell explores how housing design can reduce inequalities by ensuring that the benefits of nature, walkability, and wellbeing are shared fairly across communities.
Healthy Housing Environments
Housing estates are more than places to live, they are the everyday settings that shape how we move, connect, rest, and experience nature. The layout of streets, the presence of trees and water, access to play spaces, walkability, safety, and opportunities for social interaction all influence physical and mental wellbeing.
A healthy housing environment integrates thoughtful design, green and blue infrastructure, accessibility, and social inclusion from the outset. It considers not only buildings, but the wider landscape, creating neighbourhoods that encourage active living, strengthen community ties, enhance resilience to climate challenges, and support long-term health for all residents.
BuildWell explores how these principles can be embedded into mainstream housing design so that healthier living becomes the norm, not the exception.
Social Equity
The benefits of green space, safe streets, and healthy environments are not experienced equally. Where we live can shape our exposure to nature, our opportunities for physical activity, and even our long-term health outcomes.
As new housing developments are planned across the UK, there is a risk that high-quality green and blue infrastructure becomes unevenly distributed, enhancing some communities while leaving others behind. BuildWell places social equity at the centre of its work, exploring how housing design can reduce inequalities rather than reinforce them.
By bringing together researchers, practitioners, policymakers, and communities, we aim to ensure that the health and wellbeing benefits of future neighbourhoods are accessible to all, regardless of income, background, or location.
BuildWell will bring..
BuildWell will bring people together to rethink how housing estates are designed and experienced. We will map existing research to understand what we already know and where important gaps remain.
We will create a shared language across disciplines so that planners, health experts, designers, and policymakers can work more effectively together. Through workshops, site visits, creative engagement, and policy dialogue, we will explore how green and blue infrastructure, thoughtful design, and inclusive planning can support healthier communities.
Most importantly, BuildWell will develop a future research roadmap helping ensure that the next generation of housing developments are designed not only to meet demand, but to support long-term wellbeing for people and planet.
Project Partners
BuildWell Network
BuildWell is a UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) funded project hosted by Heriot-Watt University