Impact of Housing Design and Place Making on Social Value And Wellbeing In The Pandemic

The pandemic offers an opportunity to build back better both for future resilience and to address the Climate Change Emergency which has not been forgotten. Changes to the planning system to accelerate economic growth have been shown not to work. Planning is too important to be done hastily. Given the likelihood of a recession great care needs to be taken with the use of scant resources. Planning policy and local authorities that focus on wellbeing and placemaking are more resilient to events such as the pandemic as they already had systems in place that in some way addressed many of the problems caused by the pandemic. Resilience starts with the home, its design and its context. Flexible space is needed in all homes as they increasingly become places of work. All homes should have access to balconies, daylight and broadband. Digital inclusion has become a major issue as services are increasingly delivered online.