Quality of life at home: Exploring people’s perceptions of where they live before and during lockdown

This report, written in collaboration with Social Life and Kaizen Partnership, explores how the built environment impacts on quality of life, and how the built environment can be improved to enhance quality of life in homes and in local neighbourhoods.

The research engaged people living in a range of settings, including areas going through regeneration, new housing developments and established areas.

Using face-to-face street interviews, the first part of the research in early March 2020 explored how people perceive the built environment’s impact on their quality of life. Two weeks into the fieldwork, the COVID-19 crisis brought the research to a halt. A new research approach was devised to continue to capture the impact of the built environment on quality of life in this extraordinary time.

In the second phase of the research, the focus shifted towards examining the role played by the home environment as well as the local area in supporting or undermining quality of life during this difficult period.