In fall 2018, Vancouver enlisted Happy Cities to evaluate its Pavement-to-Plaza initiative. Over 700 residents were surveyed in September 2018 at transformed plaza sites and control areas. The survey assessed subjective well-being factors like social connection, trust, care for place, and sense of belonging using academically-validated measures.

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

Multi-family housing complexes are urban hubs. Boosting sociability requires thoughtful design and community engagement, fostering stronger connections.

The way we commute can indeed influence our generosity, and sharing personal burdens with strangers in the city can have surprising effects.

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.

The location and design of multi-family housing significantly affect local relationships, neighborhood trust, and residents’ sense of belonging, impacting social isolation, a global public health concern in cities.

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.

This question served as inspiration for our experiment in Vancouver, Canada, where we measured the impact of colorful or lush interventions on people's well-being.

This question fueled an experiment conducted by Happy Cities and collaborators, forming our winning entry for the Shore to Core research competition. Organized by the Van Alen Institute and West Palm Beach Community Redevelopment Agency, the competition tasked participants with exploring the impact of urban spaces on human well-being and reimagining social well-being in waterfront cities.

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.

During Love Night, Charles Montgomery assembled an interdisciplinary team to reconfigure urban spaces, aiming to encourage participants to exhibit greater trust and openness towards strangers.

The driving question behind this ambitious collaboration at the Museum of Vancouver, spearheaded by Happy Cities principal Charles Montgomery, alongside four other community partners and hundreds of participants…

The BMW Guggenheim Lab, a blend of urban think tank and community center, traversed the globe to spark fresh perspectives on urban living. Happy Cities principal Charles Montgomery contributed as an original team member in New York City and continued his involvement in Berlin.