In January 2019, the United Arab Emirates introduced a pioneering national community design policy, aiming to create happier, healthier communities across the country.

Happy Cities collaborated with Colorado partners to conduct a Happy Mapping Audit at the Clear Creek School District site in Idaho Springs. This initiative is part of the town's efforts to explore opportunities for economic diversification and expanding its tax base.

Governments and city-builders must translate decades of happiness research into actionable strategies for human wellbeing. They need pragmatic approaches and inspirational examples to guide their efforts.

We co-facilitated a workshop for the Dubai 2021 Plan, aiding in design criteria development and KPIs for happiness. Our input influenced a pilot neighborhood project.

In summer 2016, Canada Mortgage and Housing Corporation (CMHC) initiated a transformative project to envision Vancouver's Granville Island in 2040. Despite its storied success as a hub where arts, industry, and surprises intersect, a refresh was necessary to ensure its continued relevance for the future.

British Land, the UK’s largest real estate investment trust, is committed to improving wellbeing through its development and placemaking practices. We helped the company to pursue this aspiration through a collaborative program of research, recommendations, site audits and workshops.

The Congress for the New Urbanism (CNU) serves as a hub for urban well-being initiatives, originating partly as a reaction to the drawbacks of urban sprawl. CNU members advocate for sustainable, walkable, mixed-use neighborhoods, fostering improved health and economic outcomes.

Over 25 years, the WHO's Healthy Cities initiative has shifted from a medical-focused approach to a holistic view of well-being, encompassing all aspects of urban health.

Regional governments can collaborate with urban and rural communities to identify shared interventions for fostering happy, complete, and healthy communities through inclusive dialogue, data analysis, and participatory planning processes.

We advocate that evidence on design's impact on happiness empowers designers, planners, and citizens to co-create better communities. Teaming up with Laboratorio para la Ciudad, an urban innovation lab, we applied this approach in a complex, contested district in Mexico City.