Brent Cross Town: Flourishing Index Baseline Report

Brent Cross, London, UK

Best known for its large shopping centre, the Brent Cross district of north London is undergoing a major transformation, with a far-reaching regeneration project that is building a vibrant community and ensuring the area delivers more than just popular retail facilities. £8bn of urban regeneration is planned in the coming two decades.

Developer Related Argent and Barnet Council formed a joint venture with the vision to create a dynamic town centre and flourishing neighbourhood featuring 6,700 new homes, 3 million ft² of offices, student housing and homes for later living, as well as a high street, schools and parks and playing fields.

The Brent Cross district of north London is undergoing a major transformation, with £8bn of urban regeneration planned in the coming two decades.

A team from Buro Happold and the University of Manchester built a transdisciplinary and mixed-methods approach to recording resident wellbeing data.

The challenge was to co-develop a system that uses socio-economics, social sciences and epidemiology to form a baseline against which the future happiness and life satisfaction of residents can be measured.

Researchers also conducted a range of direct behaviour observations and measured air pollution levels at a local school.

Challenge

The Brent Cross Town baseline report presents innovative wellbeing research undertaken between January 2021 and January 2022. The work was led by the University of Manchester (UoM) and Buro Happold, drawing on transdisciplinary and mixed-methods approaches. The challenge was to build a collaborative measurement system that uses a combination of qualitative and quantitative science, to form a baseline against which the future wellbeing of residents can be measured.

All data was collected prior to the delivery of the major Brent Cross Town delivery stages, from local people who already live in the Brent Cross area. The vast majority are expected to remain in the area, as the regeneration project is built and managed.

The key goal was to create a new way to measure how well the people at Brent Cross Town are doing, and in turn how well the regeneration project is doing, evolving the focus of wellbeing from ‘me’ to ‘us’ and creating a “Flourishing Index” that reflects the experiences of all stakeholders.

Working with the joint venture team and local stakeholders, the Buro Happold/University of Manchester team co-developed a definition for a new Flourishing Index that is based on the latest science but is also representative of local voices and circumstances.

A first round of baseline data was captured before January 2022, using a mixed-methods approach, drawing upon vanguard analogue and digital sensor and data technologies as well as the face-to-face surveying of residents.

Solution

Contrary to tradition and in line with innovative wellbeing research emerging in the UK, the index focusses on self-reported experienced or ‘internal’ wellbeing, helping go beyond a reliance on external objective measures (e.g. GDP), which do not always correspond closely with how people are feeling and functioning.

In addition, the bespoke and robust baseline offers a rare and invaluable basis for long-term evaluation, as Brent Cross Town is built out and managed.

Detailed evaluation of this nature is rarely achieved within urban regeneration and the built environment, where Post Occupancy Evaluation (POE) is usually the extent of developers’ and investors aspirations post-construction – if at all.

The team conducted a wide variety of online discussion groups, intercept and online surveys, engaging with 1,500 residents, as well developing a “Theory of Change” exercise, which mapped potential pathways joining desired outcomes with key causes.

Researchers also conducted behavioural observations. The team located itself in strategic locations to record examples of key wellbeing behaviours. A manual approach was used to count more than 4,500 people, recording levels of physical activity, social interaction, and environmental awareness. An automated sensor-based approach also counted more than 330,000 instances of physical activity, such as cycling and walking. Air pollution levels were also monitored at a local school.

Value

Our experts were able to draw on Buro Happold’s rich heritage of working on complex urban projects, engaging with multiple stakeholders to build a picture of the fabric and lived experience of life in Brent Cross.

Individual wellbeing and a wider sense of belonging were found to already be relatively strong in Brent Cross, along with how well people perceive the local community to be functioning. Whereas other measures were found to be low, compared to other comparable areas and groups, in the UK and Europe. The data collected builds a robust baseline that can be used by the developer and local authority to monitor and build on these wellbeing strengths and weaknesses, as the urban fabric and community’s facilities are further enriched in the coming years.