Public Health Academic Evaluation: “Place Quality” humanistic design standards
- Oct 1, 2025
- 2 min read
PUBLISHED JULY 2025
The Place Quality Intervention was selected for an academic evaluation by the PHIRST (Public Health Intervention Responsive Studies Team) scheme, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research.
Public health researchers from Bristol University undertook a study to review the effectiveness of new guidance and related interventions, introduced into a London local authorities planning requirements in June 2023. The borough has approximately 340,000 residents.
The “Place Quality Model” is a structured approach is based on the “Compassionate Places Method” for health and human-focused built environment design. Both the model and underlying method were developed by Natasha Reid, Matter Space Soul.
Key Public Health Evaluation findings:
The findings and recommendations from the public health academic team (funded by the National Institute of Health and Care Research) are for;
Rolling out at national level,
Upgrading to policy
Applying to all types of developments
For “consistently better and healthier spaces everywhere”.
PHIRST INSIGHT EVALUATION 2025
PLACE QUALITY: HUMANISTIC DESIGN STANDARDS
This approach was implemented from 2023 within a London local authority's spatial planning processes as new design and placemaking standards for "Place Quality," to embed health, social well-being, and inclusivity into design and planning practices. The approach provides a new way of evaluating design success, moving beyond quantitative metrics to qualitative benchmarks focused on enriching people's lives.
SUMMARY OF THE PLACE QUALITY MODEL
As part of the new SPD developed, the novel Place Quality Model comprises a framework, guidance, criteria, toolkits and detailed indicators that set out a new form of built environment design and placemaking benchmarks. The core difference is to move beyond traditional metrics that focus on numerical quantities or “brick-and-mortar” aesthetics, utility and physical factors, to the outcomes for people’s quality of life.
To do this, the background Compassionate Places Method incorporates insights from fields like neuroscience, public health, environmental psychology and social sciences, which are not usually integrated into built environment design or planning practices.
The Place Quality Model and component parts provide guidance and a structured approach for designers and planners to systematically address the impacts of the built environment on people’s health and quality of life, including new standards for evaluating design quality or success.
The process of developing the model for application within local government involved simplifying complex considerations into step-by-step processes that could be accessible and useable by many different stakeholders; from design teams, planning officers, decision-makers, community members and the general public.
ABOUT NIHR AND PHIRST
The NIHR funds, enables and delivers world-leading health and social care research that improves people’s health and wellbeing and promotes economic growth. The PHIRST scheme links up academic teams with local government organisations to evaluate public health interventions that are already happening across the UK
