An ode to women in the happy city movement

by Editor on March 9, 2017

Women’s Day got us thinking about many of the leaders who have inspired our healthy, happy city movement: The activism and enduring wisdom of Jane Jacobs. The pragmatic audacity of Janette Sadik-Khan. The brave public advocacy of Jennifer Keesmat, who risks her job by speaking evidence-based truth to power in Toronto. Clair Cooper-Marcus, whose research and ideas flow through all our work on housing. And Eva Kail, who showed us that building a… Continue reading

That’s a wrap! Happy Housing Design Studio

by Charles Montgomery on December 7, 2016

The Happy City team hosted an inspiring one-night studio to create sociability-boosting tools for multi-family house design. Sponsored by BC Housing and led by Happy City associate Patricia Rios, the Happy Housing Design Studio invited a roomful of multi-talented planners, designers, developers and also a few wildcards. The fun began when we added markers, tracing paper, snacks, and beverages courtesy of Faculty Brewing. This enthusiastic squad of interdisciplinary super-heroes turned evidence into actions and visual tools to change how housing is designed in the near future.

Preliminary findings will be shared on December 8 at CONNECT-Catalyzing a Social Movement forum by the City of Vancouver and Vancouver Coastal Health at the Museum of Vancouver. The Happy Housing Toolkit and report will be released in March 2017.

Groundbreaking happy streets experiment coming to Vancouver!

by Editor on August 17, 2016

Around the world, city streets are being transformed into better places to walk, socialize and celebrate. People are trading dead street edges and dangerous asphalt for vibrant sidewalks, parklets and plazas that are expressions of new ideas about human happiness. But how do these changes influence the way we feel and treat other people? If we want to keep these wonderful spaces, we need evidence about how these interventions influence… Continue reading

The Urbanist Pope

by Editor on July 18, 2015

If we want to save the planet, we have got to change the way we live in cities.

This urgent cause requires more than peer-reviewed studies. It demands a call to action that appeals to people’s deepest values. The planet’s estimated 1.2 billion Catholics got just that call to action from their Pope this spring.