“Designing healthier cities begins with listening, to data, to place, and to people.”
Published: 1 December 2025
Commentary
Dr Mingyu Zhu (Urban Big Data Centre) received the Design Research for Healthy Cities Award at the Healthy City Design 2025 International Congress. He explains how this achievement emphasises the importance of taking a data-led and collaborative approach towards influencing urban change.
Together with my fellow collaborators at Northumbria University, it was an honour to receive this award for our paper, Co-mapping Future Scenarios and Uncertainties amid the Climate Crisis: A Collective Study of Coastal Towns and the Port of Tyne.
This recognition celebrates research that connects community engagement, spatial design, and environmental resilience to re-imagine healthier, more equitable futures for post-industrial coastal regions.
The paper builds on our Brown to Green’ transition project, funded by the AHRC Design Exchange Partnership (DEP). The study explored how participatory mapping and scenario-building can empower coastal communities to engage with complex transitions in the face of climate change.
Working in collaboration with our industrial partner, Omanos Analytics, we brought together residents, planners, and designers and visualised future scenarios of just energy transition and urban transformation. The research demonstrates how technology and design can act as a bridge between urban planning and social imagination, giving voice to local narratives often overlooked in top-down urban policies.
Receiving this award alongside international leaders in healthy urban design underscores the growing importance of inclusive, data-driven, and design-led approaches to health and sustainability.
Supported by a wide network of partners across academia, industry, and the third sector, the congress recognises research that connects evidence, creativity, and community action. For us, the award highlights the value of cross-disciplinary collaboration and the power of design research to influence real-world decision-making.
Designing healthier cities begins with listening, to data, to place, and to people. This award is a reminder that transformative urban change is a collective endeavour, built on imagination, inclusion, and action.
Read more on the School of Social & Political Sciences news webpage.
First published: 1 December 2025