Resident co-created urban redesign to improve health in post-war neighbourhoods: an exploration

Abstract

Urban interventions in the built environment can improve the health of residents by impacting daily living patterns and lifestyles. Co-creation of these interventions with residents enhances their effectiveness. This pilot study investigates how the co-creation process can be developed, with elderly as a target group. The setting of the pilot is the area around a shopping centre in a post-war neighbourhood. Residents were recruited via the neighbourhood council and existing networks, via student-recruiters and via door-to-door flyers. They were asked to participate in the evaluation of proposed interventions, which aimed to increase physical activity. Virtual reality (VR) techniques were used as a tool to communicate current and redesigned environments. We organised three meetings for residents, where VR was used to: 1) collect data on current urban issues, 2) evaluate the different redesigns of the project location, and 3) present a final redesign. During meeting 1 and 2, VR was supported by questionnaires to collect data. We recruited 31 residents with an average age of 65, mostly through the neighbourhood council and existing networks. Recruitment with flyers resulted in only 1 participant (<1% response). The data collected from the combination of VR and questionnaires showed that participants were likely to walk more often in the redesigned interventions. Moreover, participants indicated that the differences between current and redesigned environments were very clear (score 4.8 out of 5) and that they could imagine very well what the designs would look like in real-life (score 4.6/5). The VR-experience was scored an 8/10 and 28 participants were willing to participate in future activities. Recruiting residents through existing networks, including the neighbourhood council, was most effective. VR technology is a very useful tool to communicate urban interventions and the residents were very capable of evaluating them while providing valuable input for the redesigns. Key messages Co-creating urban redesigns with residents to improve health is feasible, and virtual reality is of great added value as a co-creation supporting and communication tool. Urban interventions impact daily living patterns and lifestyles of residents and thereby public health.