Healthy Cities Public Debates

The latest publication from the Norman Foster Foundation brings together the three Healthy Cities Public Debates that were organised and hosted by the Foundation alongside its Health Patron, Sanitas. These debates provided a platform for crucial conversations around the primary challenge of the twenty-first century: ensuring that society evolves and grows sustainably, while promoting healthy environments, particularly cities, in which people can thrive.

The book now presents the three debates in written form, featuring the interventions of the fourteen participants alongside a selection of images. The experience and knowledge of the participants spanned architecture, politics, history, healthcare and beyond. Their contributions took the form of keynote presentations followed by round-table conversations, each appearing in dialogue with other experts to break down barriers or silos of knowledge. 

The publication is structured into three chapters, which reflect the three debates that were held annually from 2023 to 2025. Also featured is a foreword by Norman Foster, President of the Norman Foster Foundation, and an introductory chapter by Joseph G. Allen, Director of the Healthy Buildings Program at the T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Harvard University. 

Healthy Cities Public Debates serves as a handbook for improving cities of the present and future. It adds to the Foundation’s growing body of work that interrogates the major problems being faced in our built environment, whilst offering solutions to address them.