ABSTRACT
Collaborative planning and participatory design are tangible ways of co-producing residential environments with the involvement of future residents. Housing is meant to address basic human needs for shelter and security by providing protection against climatic conditions and unwanted intrusions from insects, rodents and environmental nuisances, such as noise, that may be harmful for health and well-being. The relationships between housing and health ought to be considered in terms of the multiple factors that influence human habitats and health status, and the interrelations between them. Ecological thinking applied to public health does not search for specific cause-effect relationships isolated from the contextual conditions in which people live. The Healthy Cities project was founded in 1987 by 11 European cities and the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe. Housing and health was attributed a high priority in 2004 at the Fourth European Ministerial Conference on Environment and Health.
