One of the themes this year was around ageing, with a focus on how the built environment impacts health and well-being.
– I was invited to present at a special session “Improving health and well-being”. They wanted to have examples of strategies from different countries, says Steven Schmidt.
Besides his, there were two presentations from New Zealand and one from Japan.
– The one that stood out the most to me was the presentation by the mayor of Matsue City, Japan. They had a very comprehensive approach to achieve net zero carbon in combination with improvements in quality of life for the citizens.
Also sustainable solutions for the future were presented.
– There were a couple of projects about improving the natural air flow and air exchange inside buildings that improved comfort and well-being of the people in the buildings and reduced the need for heating in the winter and air conditioning in the summer. It was nice because the changes did not require major renovations, says Steven Schmidt.
There was a panel discussion to highlight important environmental factors and solutions to improve health and well-being while ageing as well as compare and contrast the different national contexts. The panel was moderated by Yukie Nakajima who was previously a guest researcher at CASE, and Steven Schmidt was her co-supervisor during her PhD studies.
– The conference had a very applied focus towards implementation and had a very mixed set of participants and presenters: researchers, industry professionals, and local and national politicians. Hence, there were good opportunities to see successful examples from several cities that had already implemented many changes striving to achieve the sustainability goals, as well as opportunities to potential solutions for the future from ongoing research projects.
The conference was an Asia regional conference, which is part of a series of regional conferences during 2025. Next is a world congress in Australia in 2026.
