Designing for wellbeing

8
Design interventions
for wellbeing in
neighbourhoods
Sandra Viña Flores
Visiting a new place or neighbourhood can awaken
emotions and be a catalyst for new thoughts and
actions. New experiences can emerge from previous
experiences and from the information and impression
a neighbourhood provides. However, the surface
of the place can’t tell it all. Neighbourhoods,
villages and the urban landscape have hard and soft
qualities that tell about the identity of the place,
and where local culture develops. Hard qualities
include buildings and institutions such as hospitals,
museums and cultural centres, infrastructure such
as roads, and natural features, landscapes and green
areas. The soft qualities are about people, culture
and the social domain. The process of experiencing
a place occurs in a passive or proactive way, and
118