The Challenges of Evidence-Based Design

Other text in scientific journal, 2024

Challenges ahead: why urban planning and urban design need robust quantitative evidence for decision making.

While some progress has been made, particularly in areas like healing architecture where the impact of design on human well-being is more directly observable, much work remains to be done to extend evidence-based design to broader fields of architecture, urban planning and design. Meta Berghauser Pont (Chalmers University of Technology) explains the challenges and pathways needed for a shift toward evidence-based design in urban planning and urban design.

Evidence-based design (EBD) is increasingly seen as a critical methodology for urban development to address the multifaceted challenges that cities face today, such as climate change, spatial inequality, public health, and well-being (Wiley 2017). It is crucial that decisions about how the urban environment is transformed consider this and are evidence based (Hamilton 2003). However, EBD is not yet common practice (Pilosof and Grobman 2021), it requires a fundamental change in how knowledge is disseminated, research is conducted, architects and urban planners are trained, and how professional practice is organised.