Question 1

What is the Health+Design Initiative?

Accepted Answer

The Health+Design Initiative (HDI) is a program of the College of Architecture and Planning at the University of Colorado Denver. Its mission is to integrate health considerations into the practice and education of design and planning, making communities healthier for all people who live, work, and play within them.

HDI was established with support from a multi-year grant from the Colorado Health Foundation, under a project titled "Creating Healthy Places through Transformational Education and Design." This funding enabled a sustained research and educational effort involving graduate students, faculty, and community partners across Colorado.

The initiative operates at the intersection of public health, architecture, landscape architecture, urban planning, and urban design. It recognizes that the built environment — the streets, buildings, parks, and neighborhoods we create — has profound effects on the physical, mental, and social health of residents.

Through research, education, and the development of practical planning tools, HDI aims to equip professionals and communities with what they need to make health-informed decisions throughout the planning and design process.

Question 2

What health tools does the Health+Design Initiative provide?

Accepted Answer

HDI has developed two primary tools for use by planners, designers, community leaders, and decision-makers: the Health Assessment Lens and the GuideBox to Healthy Places.

The Health Assessment Lens is a structured evaluation framework organized around eight health categories — Equity and Justice, Human Wellbeing, Harmony with Nature, Education and Wellness, Economic Resiliency, Healthy Homes and Buildings, Healthy Community, and Healthy Connections. It helps users assess community health conditions and identify gaps before and during a planning or design project.

The GuideBox to Healthy Places is an accessible, flexible resource kit designed to facilitate conversations and education around health in community settings. It includes a facilitator's guide, topic booklets, a card deck with 52 cards organized into four suits, and other supporting materials.

Both tools are freely available and were designed to be used by professionals and community members alike — whether in formal planning processes, classroom instruction, or grassroots community meetings.

Question 3

How does the Health Assessment Lens support planning decisions?

Accepted Answer

The Health Assessment Lens supports planning and design decision-making by providing a structured way to identify health-related conditions, opportunities, and gaps in a community before and during a project. It is designed to be used at multiple stages — from initial scoping to comprehensive evaluation and ongoing implementation.

Each of the eight health categories in the Lens includes a brief introduction and a series of detailed questions. Users can focus on categories most relevant to their project or conduct a comprehensive review across all eight dimensions. This flexibility makes the tool applicable to a wide range of project types, from neighborhood master plans to individual building designs.

The Lens is particularly valuable during the scoping phase of a project — the early period when teams are identifying what issues need to be considered. By surfacing health factors at this stage, it ensures that health remains a central consideration throughout the planning process, not an afterthought.

Additionally, the Lens can be used to evaluate existing plans and programs, identifying areas where health integration can be strengthened. It provides a consistent framework for comparison across projects and over time, supporting evidence-based planning practice.

Question 4

Who can benefit from the GuideBox to Healthy Places?

Accepted Answer

The GuideBox to Healthy Places was designed to be useful for a broad range of audiences, from professional planners and architects to community advocates and educators. Its flexible, modular format means it can be adapted to many different contexts and levels of expertise.

For design and planning professionals, the GuideBox provides a quick way to introduce health concepts in project meetings, stakeholder workshops, and interdisciplinary team discussions. Its Card Deck and topic booklets make complex health topics accessible and engaging for diverse audiences.

Community organizations, neighborhood groups, and public health advocates can use the GuideBox to educate residents about health and the built environment, facilitating conversations about what changes would make their communities healthier. The WalkGuide component is particularly useful for neighborhood walks and direct community engagement.

Educators at both undergraduate and graduate levels have found the GuideBox useful for classroom instruction, introducing students to the connections between design, planning, and public health in an interactive, hands-on format. The tool's organization into thematic booklets and the card deck format lends itself naturally to group learning activities.

Question 5

How does community design affect public health?

Accepted Answer

The relationship between community design and public health is well-established in research literature. The built environment — including land use patterns, street design, building quality, park access, and transportation systems — shapes the conditions under which people live, influencing their physical activity, air quality exposure, social connections, mental wellbeing, and access to healthy food and services.

Communities designed primarily around automobile travel, for example, tend to discourage walking and cycling, contributing to sedentary lifestyles and higher rates of obesity and cardiovascular disease. In contrast, neighborhoods with connected street networks, quality sidewalks, mixed land uses, and access to parks support active transportation and physical health.

Inequitable design also creates health disparities. Historically, low-income communities and communities of color have been disproportionately exposed to environmental hazards, denied access to green space, and disconnected from quality public transportation. Health-conscious design seeks to address these disparities by centering equity and justice in planning decisions.

HDI's tools and research are grounded in this understanding. By equipping planners and designers with frameworks to measure and address health impacts, HDI works to ensure that the built environments we create — now and in the future — support the health and wellbeing of all community members.

Question 6

What is the Colorado Healthy Places Collaborative?

Accepted Answer

The Colorado Healthy Places Collaborative (CHPC) is a network of statewide and regional organizations and associations committed to working together to create healthier communities across Colorado. It grew out of the Communities in Transition symposium hosted by CU Denver's College of Architecture and Planning in April 2018.

The Collaborative brings together nearly two dozen partner organizations from across multiple sectors, including architecture, planning, landscape architecture, public health, sustainability, and community development. Members include professional associations, government agencies, foundations, and advocacy organizations.

Partner organizations that lend the GuideBox through their networks include AIA Colorado, The Alliance Center, APA Colorado Chapter, ASCE Colorado Section, ASLA Colorado, CALPHO, the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment, The Colorado Health Foundation, Colorado Parks & Recreation Association, the Regional Institute for Health & Environmental Leadership, The Trust for Public Land Colorado, ULI Colorado, and USGBC Colorado, among others.

CHPC serves as both a dissemination network for HDI's tools and a collaborative forum for advancing healthy places work across the state. Through its partnerships, it extends the reach of health-informed planning and design far beyond the university, into the communities that stand to benefit most.

Building Healthier Communities Through Design

Integrating Health Into Every Plan

Healthy Communities

Practical Tools

Education

Collaboration

Resources for Healthy Place-Making

Health Assessment Lens

GuideBox to Healthy Places

Research, Education & Community Engagement

Studio & Research Projects

Creating Healthy Places

Communities in Transition

PLAN4Health Colorado

Guidebook

News & Events

Eight Dimensions of Community Health

A Statewide Network for Healthy Communities

Frequently Asked Questions