Awards categories
The awards comprise eight categories that reflect the breadth and interconnected nature of healthy city design today. These span key domains including healthy city design and planning; healthy homes and neighbourhoods; population and neighbourhood health; sustainable infrastructure and green mobility; community impact and social value; healthy working environments; smart cities and digital health; and design research for healthy cities. Together, they capture interventions from building to city scale, as well as the systems, technologies and research that underpin healthier, more inclusive and resilient urban environments.
Healthy city design and planning
This award recognises excellence in urban planning and design that delivers healthier, more resilient and inclusive cities. It celebrates evidence-based, people-centred approaches to urban development, including compact city models, active living and regeneration, demonstrating how planning, design and local context combine to shape healthier urban futures.
 | Lead judge: Sunand Prasad OBE, PPRIBA, Perkins&Will, UK | |
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Healthy homes and neighbourhoods
Supported by
This award recognises projects that demonstrate how housing and neighbourhood design can support health, equity and everyday wellbeing. It highlights innovative, evidence-based approaches to delivering healthy, affordable and adaptable homes within inclusive, walkable communities, improving access to services, green space and social connection across all stages of life.
 | Lead judge: Ben Cave, BCA; University of Groningen, UK | |
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Sustainable infrastructure and green mobility
This award celebrates projects that integrate sustainable infrastructure and green mobility to support human and planetary health. It recognises low-carbon, resource-efficient and inclusive systems, including transport, energy and nature-based solutions, that improve air quality, enable active lifestyles and strengthen environmental, social and economic resilience.
 | Lead judge: Louise Ciotti, University of the West of England, UK | |
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Community impact and social value
This award recognises projects that deliver measurable social value and positive community impact through planning and development. It highlights approaches that embed equity, inclusion and health outcomes into decision-making, demonstrating meaningful engagement, co-design and long-term benefits that strengthen communities and ensure development delivers tangible public value.
 | Lead judge: Lourdes Madigasekera-Elliott, Creating Healthy Places, East Sussex County Council, UK | |
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Smart cities and digital health
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This award recognises how digital innovation and smart technologies can improve health, wellbeing and quality of life in cities. It celebrates projects that use data and technology to create more responsive, efficient and inclusive urban environments, while addressing governance, ethics and equitable access to ensure real-world impact.
 | Lead judge: Andy Miah, University of Salford, UK | |
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Population and neighbourhood health
This award recognises place-based approaches that improve health outcomes at population and neighbourhood levels. It highlights projects that integrate healthcare into communities alongside planning and design strategies that support prevention, early intervention and health equity, creating accessible, resilient and people-centred systems of care.
 | Lead judge: Beatrice Fraenkel, Design Council, UK | |
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Healthy working environments
This award recognises excellence in the design, delivery and management of workplaces that support health, wellbeing and productivity. It includes a wide range of settings and highlights evidence-based approaches that improve physical and mental health, safety, inclusion and sustainability across diverse working environments.
 | Lead judge: Jeremy Myerson, The Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art; Worktech Academy, UK | |
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Design research for healthy cities
This award recognises outstanding research that advances understanding of how the built environment influences health, equity and wellbeing. It celebrates original, independently assessed research that contributes to design, policy or practice, including studies, tools and frameworks with clear relevance and potential for real-world impact.
 | Lead judge: Helen Pineo, Urban planner and research associate professor, University of Washington, USA | |
