COVID-19 hit Canada's main streets hard, with closures devastating small businesses. Immediate action is needed, but inclusive planning is crucial for safer, stronger, and more inclusive long-term improvements.

Transportation decisions extend beyond mere movement; they profoundly influence people's lives, impacting their health and happiness. Decades of global research highlight the far-reaching effects of transit spending decisions, emphasizing the interconnectedness between transportation policies and individual well-being.

Mexico City boasts two of the world's largest urban parks: Chapultepec and San Juan de Aragon. These expansive parks feature green spaces, lush forests, and various amenities including playgrounds and skate parks, providing residents with ample opportunities for recreation and relaxation.

Happy Cities partnered with Superior, CO, to foster community unity through art and public spaces. "Inspired by Nature: Superior’s Creative Placemaking Master Plan" celebrates local identity and values.

Happy Cities collaborated with the City of Rotterdam to address mobility and public space needs in the Bloemhof neighborhood, focusing on marginalized groups. Through extensive on-site and remote engagement, we worked directly with residents to develop practical walkability solutions.

Public space in Vancouver isn't universally accessible; residents encounter barriers based on identity factors like race, gender, sexual orientation, age, income, and ability. Overlapping identities compound these challenges, affecting access, comfort, and safety in city spaces.

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.