Housing Design, Health, and Wellbeing: Learnings from Housing Projects in Mangalore, India

Good health and well-being are essential features of quality urban living. With rapid urbanization and increasing population in countries like India, health and well-being are often undiscussed in Architecture and Urban Studies. Designing cities for health and well-being has extended benefits in achieving sustainable urban environments. House is one of the areas where people spend most of their time a day. Understanding how the housing design influences the health and well-being of inhabitants is essential because more people are expected to live in urban areas, and there are already many housing projects going on to meet the housing demands in cities. This study aims to understand the role of housing design in influencing the health and well-being of inhabitants at two levels; one at the indoor level (house level) and the second at the outdoor level (site and neighborhood). An empirical study was conducted on four low-rise and four high-rise housing projects in Mangalore and Manipal in India. Data were collected through onsite observations and self-administered questionnaire surveys using 16 factors. The data from 100 household surveys were analyzed using descriptive statistics and compared for the variability of factors among low-rise and high-rise housing projects. The results indicate that health and well-being factors are rated differently in low-rise and high-rise housing projects. The factors such as indoor thermal comfort, adequate space for indoor physical activity, visual comfort and contact with nature, and maintenance issues are causes of lower satisfaction levels at the indoor level. On the outdoor level, Accessible Park/green open spaces for a physical activity near the house and, Ease of navigation and walkability in the surrounding area are two unsatisfactory factors indicating a need for design focus in these aspects. There are also variations among the scores of low-rise and high-rise in the indoor and outdoor categories. Based on the survey result, this study discusses some considerations for urban housing projects to improve the health and well-being of inhabitants.