Building for a healthy life.
A home is shaped not only by what is inside it, but by everything around it. At Tilia Homes, we plan each development with the wider neighbourhood in mind, considering its relationship with the surrounding landscape, green spaces, travel routes and local community. From accessible walking and cycling connections to welcoming streets and shared spaces, every detail has a part to play in creating somewhere people can feel at home.
Our approach is gaining independent recognition. A number of our developments have already completed the Building for a Healthy Life assessment and achieved a Commendation, while others are currently progressing through the process. Looking ahead, every new Tilia Homes development will take part from the planning stage, placing good design and placemaking at the centre of each new community.
What is building for a healthy life?
Building for a Healthy Life is England’s most widely used independent design assessment for new residential developments. Endorsed by Homes England, it considers how well a development performs against 12 key measures that contribute to creating successful places to live.
The assessment looks beyond individual homes to consider the wider neighbourhood, including:
- How easy it is to walk, cycle and move around the community
- Access to green spaces and local facilities
- The quality and character of streets and public spaces
- How well new homes fit into their surroundings
- Opportunities to support nature and biodiversity
- The overall experience of living in the development
Each scheme is reviewed against these criteria by independent assessors, providing an objective measure of its design quality.
What it means to build for a healthy life...
1
Nature links
Routes that connect people, places and wildlife
2
Active travel
Walking and cycling made easy
3
Community spaces
Places to meet, pause and enjoy
4
Inclusive homes
A range of homes for different needs
5
Local landscape
Designed around existing trees and landscape
6
Character
A distinctive place with village character
7
Streets & spaces
Attractive streets with clear frontages
8
Wayfinding
Simple streets that are easy to navigate
9
Healthy streets
Green, people-friendly streets
10
Parking
Cycle and car parking carefully planned
11
Green & blue spaces
Open space, play, drainage and nature combined
12
Fronts of homes
Welcoming homes with clear public and private spaces
Our building for a healthy life developments
Why does it matter?
The character of a neighbourhood can have a real impact on everyday life. It can influence how easily people get around, how often they spend time outdoors and how connected they feel to the people and places around them.
Building for a Healthy Life encourages careful consideration of these experiences. Safe and convenient routes can make walking and cycling a more natural choice, green spaces can support play and relaxation, and well-designed streets can help communities feel welcoming and easy to navigate.
For anyone choosing a Tilia home, the assessment offers independent reassurance that the wider development has been considered against established national principles for good design and placemaking.
Building quality in from the beginning
Taking part in the Building for a Healthy Life assessment from the planning stage allows its principles to guide our thinking throughout the design process. By applying this approach to every future Tilia Homes development, we can consider how homes, streets, green spaces and connections will work together before building begins.
As Graeme Smith, Group Innovation & Design Director at untypical, explains:
“Building for a Healthy Life is one of the most rigorous independent measures of design quality available to the housebuilding sector. Committing every site to this standard is not a marketing exercise – it is a statement about the kind of housebuilder we intend to be.”
Creating places for the future
Our focus is not simply on how a new development looks when it is first completed, but on how it will support its community in the years ahead.
Through Building for a Healthy Life, we are giving long-term quality, sustainability and wellbeing a clear role in the way our future developments are planned. It is another important step in creating enduring neighbourhoods where people can settle, feel connected and be proud to live.