Active neighbourhoods and lifestyle interventions

Within this focus area, our research group explores how neighborhoods can serve as powerful catalysts for health. We start from the belief that health is not only shaped in the doctor’s office, but above all in the everyday environments where people live, connect, and care for one another. By promoting active neighborhoods and well-designed lifestyle interventions, we aim to bring health closer to people and embed it in their daily lives.

A healthy neighborhood encourages self-care, supports informal caregivers, strengthens community-based care, and makes primary care more accessible and human-centered. But health goes beyond care alone. That’s why we focus on all the key pillars of a healthy lifestyle: regular physical activity, reducing sedentary behavior, healthy and accessible nutrition, promoting rest and relaxation, quality sleep, and strengthening social connectedness. We investigate how these elements can reinforce one another within a neighborhood-based approach, and how residents, healthcare providers, and policymakers can work together to create environments where healthy living becomes the norm.

Curious to see how we put this into practice? Be sure to explore our projects and discover the power of neighborhoods that breathe health.