Thriving communities: salutogenic approach to neighbourhood scale retrofit in the UK.

Blazusiak, Magdalena; Scott, Jonathan; Seddiki, Mohammed

Abstract

Evidence based research identifies effects of buildings on human health and wellbeing. Poor living conditions too often result in adverse physical and mental health, where energy efficiency improvements are a major factor in enhancing people's comfort and Quality of Life (QoL). However, retrofit standards are focused predominantly on addressing building performance gaps and resulting carbon reductions. While the primary driver for retrofit action is carbon-centric, rather than human-centric, the focus must shift to addressing health inequalities and supporting long-term wellbeing in the neighbourhood scale interventions. Currently, psycho-social determinants of health in the context of the existing built environment are not well recognised nor equally assessed. This paper explores how salutogenic theory of health promotion can be applied to retrofit interventions. Ensuring people can be supported by their homes as their circumstances change through their lives, the proposed approach focuses on human needs. Salutogenic approaches applied to architecture can support multiple coping mechanisms and strengthen one's sense of coherence (SOC), recognising psycho-social factors of health promotion in the long-term perspective. The approach has not yet been explored in the retrofit design and delivery, even though National Health Service (NHS) promotes the model of healthcare at home.

Citation

BLAZUSIAK, M., SCOTT, J. and SEDDIKI, M. 2025. Thriving communities: salutogenic approach to neighbourhood scale retrofit in the UK. In Kouider, T. and Galiano Garrigós, A. (eds.) Proceedings of the 11th International congress on architectural technology 2025 (ICAT 2025): buildings fit for climate change, 15-17 May 2025, Alicante, Spain. San Vicente del Raspeig: Universidad de Alicante [online], pages 275-289. Available from: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154595

• Presentation Conference Type: Conference Paper (published)
• Conference Name: 11th International congress on architectural technology 2025 (ICAT 2025): building fit for climate change
• Start Date: May 15, 2025
• End Date: May 17, 2025
• Acceptance Date: Dec 20, 2024
• Online Publication Date: Jun 11, 2025
• Publication Date: May 31, 2025
• Deposit Date: Sep 19, 2024
• Publicly Available Date: Jun 16, 2025
• Publisher: Universidad de Alicante
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Pages: 275-290
• ISBN: 9788413023182
• Keywords: Retrofit; Health and wellbeing; Salutogenesis; Psycho-social determinants of health; Sense of coherence; Manageability; comprehensibility; Meaningfulness; Ageing population
• Public URL: https://rgu-repository.worktribe.com/output/2481349
• Additional Information: The full proceedings of this conference is available from http://rua.ua.es/dspace/handle/10045/154489
• External URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154595
• Other Repo URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/154595