Building for Wellbeing

Wellbeing as the starting point

Our surroundings affect how we feel, move and connect with others. Yet in construction and urban development, wellbeing is often considered only later in the process, even though the choices made at the very beginning shape how people will live.

In collaboration with various designers, Heijmans is exploring how wellbeing can become a starting point in new building projects. Three design projects investigate this at different scales: the home, infrastructure and the neighbourhood.

From home to neighbourhood

The Restorative Home asks if a home can help you slow down and recover? The modular Horizon home, designed by Rombout Frieling lab, challenges familiar ideas about how we live. Calm spaces with fewer distractions, unexpected layouts and places to retreat show how a home can support rest and recovery. Step inside a ‘restorative home’ and experience how these design choices affect the way you feel.

With On the Road to Wellbeing, the focus shifts to infrastructure. Can a road, bridge or tunnel offer more than just a way to get from A to B? Together with Heijmans, design studio cocosmos explores what is already happening within Heijmans to support wellbeing. Insights from three infrastructure projects show how listening to residents and users can lead to interventions that not only reduce disruption, but also support health, social interaction and a sense of connection.

And what happens when wellbeing becomes the starting point for an entire neighbourhood? At De Bazaar in Beverwijk, Heijmans and Afdeling Buitengewone Zaken are focusing on what people need to feel at home: connect with others, and live healthy lives, even before anyone knows who will eventually live there. This makes wellbeing a foundation for the neighbourhood of tomorrow, rather than an afterthought.