Morristown Case Study Displayed at the Healthy City Design Conference in London

(A Press Release by JENNIE AREZZI on TapInto.net)

https://www.tapinto.net/towns/morristown/articles/morristown-case-study-displayed-at-the-healthy-city-design-conference-in-London

MORRISTOWN, NJ – NK Architects, a Morristown-based architecture and structural engineering firm, had the honor of displaying a case study on improving health and wellness in Morristown at this year’s Healthy City Design International 2018 Congress & Exhibition at the Royal College of Physicians in London, England.

The second annual conference, organized by SALUS Global Knowledge Exchange in collaboration with Helen Hamlyn Centre for Design, Royal College of Art, had a theme and mission to promote sustainable development, wellbeing, and inclusive growth in creating cities and communities that are resilient, equitable, and fair to all.

The organizers and attendees came together after realizing that there are still health inequalities that are largely based on broader social inequalities. By bringing together architects, planners, designers, clinicians, technologists, economists, policymakers, and citizens, they can collaborate and help create healthier cities by closing the very polarized gap between rich and poor, public and private, and engaged and excluded.

The Morristown case study that NK Architects delivered at the conference explained that architectural designs can improve health and wellness in the built environment. NK recognizes where the roots of wellness already exist and build upon that, filling those gaps. In order to do so, NK needed to study the complexities of the community.

Ben P. Lee, AIA, Principal and Chief Financial Officer, and Erin Sharp Newton, Associate AIA felt that Morristown, NJ was a great example of a community that simultaneously holds a suburban and urban character. It offers many of the amenities of a big city, yet retains aspects of the green nature found in small towns. Unfortunately, Morristown suffers the same woes as many others.

The poster created by Lee and Newton was displayed at the conference and helped identify a framework for comprehensive strategies for health and wellness, data collection and analysis on contributing factors, and propositions for interventions. It also illustrated how professionals can work together to positively impact a population, while applying design and health and wellness principles.

NK Architects has seen positive results of many organizations, institutions, and collaboratives working together to promote health, wellness, and wellbeing for the entire community. Architects, designers, planners, and healthcare entities are succeeding in their mission to make Morristown a welcoming, beautiful, healthy, resilient, and sustainable place to live, play, and work.