Innovating Resident Connectedness for Health & Wellbeing

A collaboration between an industry-leading urban development corporation and a human-centred design consultancy to develop innovative ideas that improve connectedness for new residents of Ebbsfleet Garden City (EGC) -- the largest of a new generation of new town-scale garden communities built on 100% brownfield land.

Moving to a brand-new home in a brand-new neighbourhood on a large-scale urban development is an exciting prospect for the tens of thousands of tenants and home-owners in the UK who do just that each year. Countering this excitement however is the social disruption and lack of connection that comes with moving to a new place. Lacking connection to other residents can lead to social isolation and loneliness which has a devastating effect on a person's health and wellbeing as well as their general prosperity. Not only do individuals pay a price, but so too do we all as poorly connected people represent a sizable burden for UK taxpayers.

Large-scale housing and regeneration projects often focus on the (infra)structural rather than the social and community aspects of their projects. Increasingly, fuelled by a combination of legislation and societal pressures, developers are realising that helping people to thrive in their new homes delivers benefits for everyone throughout the value chain. Unfortunately developers often don't have the skills necessary to fully understand and address residents' needs.

Collaborating with Ambit, specialists in people-centred and system-aware design methods, Ebbsfleet Development Corporation (EDC) will leverage this competition funding to identify innovation opportunities and use this foundation to generate innovative ideas and potential tools and approaches to plan for improved resident-connectedness. As pioneers and leaders in housing development, large-scale place-making and regeneration, and with established connections to EGC's current community of 8,000+ residents, with an additional 1500 arriving every year we are in a strong position to develop ideas and disseminate them to the broader industry for maximum impact.