Thomas Heatherwick's campaign Humanise has embarked on a £1.5 million research project that will explore how the UK's streetscapes can be beautified to improve wellbeing.

Titled Delivering Humanised Places, the research is a partnership made up of the University of Glasgow, funding agency UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) and Humanise, which was established by Heatherwick in 2023.

As part of the £1.5 million research partnership, Humanise said it wants to "challenge the 'blandemic' of dull, soulless development" and improve the way the UK designs and builds its urban environments.

The research project will look into how buildings in the UK can promote health and a sense of pride and belonging, and the potential socio-economic benefits of doing so.

"We've spent decades designing buildings with a narrow definition of function"

Particular focus will be made on the external design of buildings and streets and the impact this has on people's wellbeing, which Heatherwick argued receives too little consideration.

"Buildings in our towns and cities are experienced by millions of us every year as we pass by, and profoundly affect how we feel, yet we've spent decades designing buildings with a narrow definition of function, led by efficiency and cost, and too much focus on the needs of the people who use them inside," he said.

"The experience for passersby has been street after street of characterlessness," Heatherwick continued.

"In this time when society is more fragmented than ever, characterised by an epidemic of loneliness, too little thought has been given to how the design of the outsides of buildings could benefit society more broadly."

Humanise to "turbocharge the creation of radically more human places"

Humanise said that, according to its own research, 76 per cent of people in the UK believe that the appearance of buildings affects mental health.

It plans to build upon existing knowledge to strengthen the evidence of how buildings affect people's wellbeing, and use this to help create spaces that are engaging and joyful.

The research will involve centring local voices and hopes to give communities more of a say in decisions that impact the places they live.

It also hopes to influence policy, offering resources to mayors and developers that will help them implement "humanised" design in regeneration and development projects.

"Human-centred design can help us create places with character and joy, that support our wellbeing and sense of belonging, and that people value for generations to come," said Heatherwick. "Places people love also last longer."

"Our ambition is to turbocharge the creation of radically more human, engaging and joyful places," he continued. "The opportunity to make meaningful change is massive, but it will only be able to begin with the deep understanding that comes from measuring."

Government's plan to build new towns "a rare opportunity"

The Delivering Humanised Places research project comes as the UK government works towards its plan to build new towns in England, which Heatherwick sees as a prime opportunity.

"Britain is preparing to build homes and communities on a scale we haven't seen for generations," he said. "This is a rare opportunity to ensure that the human experience is at the heart of what we build."

Heatherwick launched his Humanise campaign in 2023 to put into action ideas outlined in his book Humanise, a Maker's Guide to Building Our World, one of which is putting "an end to boring buildings".

Writer Owen Hopkins criticised the campaign as "an incredibly reductive way of assessing the built environment", arguing that it fails to identify the causes of poorly designed architecture and the ways to tackle them.

Top photo of Buchanan Street in Glasgow by Artur Kraft.