Degree project shows the way to health-promoting living environments

How do we create living environments that contribute to human health? It is an important question when Norrbotten is going to grow – and a framework has soon been created in a degree project.
“You have to put people first,” says Karin Blom, who did her thesis on behalf of the Arctic Design Center.

Arctic Design Center is a project that will contribute to raising skills and supporting the development of issues around designed living environments. It is about developing living environments in Norrbotten so that people feel comfortable there and want to live and work in the county. And to come up with innovative proposals for how we get there, the project has enlisted the help of Luleå University of Technology and the students who will become civil engineers with a specialization in architecture.

“Incredibly valuable expertise”

– There is so much knowledge and resources at the university. Both in the form of current research that can be implemented in the county. But also students who are basically ready-made community planners and housing builders. When those students graduate, they are up to date with the latest knowledge and research. That expertise is incredibly valuable when we are going to build so much new things, says Carolina Lundmark Weinz, project manager for the Arctic Design Center.

Carolina Lundmark Weinz is herself a former student at LTU's civil engineering program with a focus on architecture. She has given assignments in various courses on several occasions.

It was precisely the great societal transformation, with all the new construction that is required, that inspired student Karin Blom to write her thesis on the designed living environment in Norrbotten. In her work, she takes as her starting point the concept of Blue Zones – geographical places in the world that have the highest concentration of centenarians, and where people live healthier lives.

– I think it's very interesting. How can you create attractive living environments in Norrbotten in the context of social transformation, with inspiration and lessons learned from Blue Zones? So I contacted the Arctic Design Center and we started a dialogue, says Karin Blom.

Sustainability perspective

Carolina Lundmark Weinz has previously commissioned some courses within Karin's education, including one about site development in Älvsbyn and proposals for a traveling pavilion buildingIn connection with the course about Älvsbyn last fall, she flagged that the Arctic Design Center was open to doing degree projects together with the students.

– We are undergoing a societal development and need your knowledge, with the sustainability perspectives that you have. And since we have not built at this pace before, some municipalities may lack updated planning documents for how to build health promotion, says Carolina.

Carolina Lundmark Weinz has served as an external supervisor during the work on the thesis. “This topic is so exciting, I wish I had all the time in the world to be by your side the whole time,” she says to Karin.

Karin Blom is 23 years old and comes from Borås. The thesis is the last step – then she will have completed her Master of Science in Engineering. And it is precisely community planning and urban planning that she wants to work with. Maybe in Norrbotten?

– I find it very interesting about public space and how the shaping of our environments affects how people move around a city.

Attractive habitats

The thesis is linked to the Norrbotten Region's goal of creating attractive, high-quality living environments. There is a large overlap between environments that people experience as attractive and environments that are good for health.

Here are the "blue zones" - places that several researchers have been interested in. Why are people so healthy there? Image: KVC Health Systems.

Researchers who have investigated Blue Zones have looked at what the five locations have in common: Loma Linda in California, USA, Nicoya in Costa Rica, the Italian island of Sardinia, Japan's Okinawa and the Greek island of Ikaria.

Not all factors affect urban planning – but some do. And based on these factors, researchers have developed urban planning principles for a healthier society.

“Natural environments and social meeting places”

– You should design for people first. That you prioritize pedestrians and cyclists over cars. It's about creating environments that encourage natural movement. That there should be short distances between interchange points and meeting places. That you design green, recreational environments that are attractive, where people want to stay and spend time. At the same time, it should be inclusive for everyone, to create meetings for lots of people with different backgrounds. Green natural environments, active mobility and social meeting places. That you should feel a sense of belonging and identity in the urban space, and that culture is highlighted there, says Karin Blom.

Residents of Loma Linda, California, USA, live on average ten years longer than the average American.

Karin has looked at how they can be applied in a Norrbotten context, based on our conditions.

– It's about highlighting what is unique in Norrbotten. Using winter, snow and darkness to create environments based on that. Being creative in urban planning and creating natural environments where people want to stay and be. Investing in public transport and creating good cycling infrastructure that makes it easy to get between places, she says.

– You can go a long way just by taking advantage of what you have. There is a lot of natural and cultural value in Norrbotten. Highlight it through architecture! It doesn't always have to cost that much to make environments attractive.

“Local needs and conditions”

The thesis results in a framework for how to support municipalities in physical planning, to create health-promoting living environments in Norrbotten. Karin Blom has also identified the needs and challenges that officials in municipalities and the region see in applying health-promoting urban planning.

Now both Karin and Arctic Design Center hope that the framework will have an impact and make things easier for the municipalities.

– The framework is very flexible so that municipalities can develop it further based on their local needs and conditions. It's about how to think about health promotion with fairly small resources early in the planning, says Karin.

Carolina and Karin outside the Crafts and Design Center, which has several exhibitions connected to the Arctic Design Center. The Crafts and Design Center is located in Shopping, once created to encourage meetings and socializing in city life even in winter.

Carolina Lundmark Weinz is aware that it is not always easy to put people at the center of social planning. There is a calculation that has to be made, infrastructure that has to work. And economics is more measurable than social and health-promoting values.

– This is help that we can give to the municipalities, which are under pressure. With a framework like this, you have something to lean on. There will be some form of measurability when you talk about green space or similar. And then you also know how to ensure that you include it in every project.

“Adapt to the generations”

Carolina also sees problems with the built environment from the 1960s and 1970s not developing in step with the changes in society. There is a large maintenance debt, but the environments are also not adapted to the needs we have today and how we live our lives. And the previously built environment is a legacy that must be managed.

– New production is such a small part of our environments. We have to work strategically with maintenance and management to constantly adapt to the generations. It will be very interesting to see how this framework can be used in place development.

Text and image: Sara Stylbäck Vesa

Would you like to read the thesis? You can find it here.