How does a happy city come together? It means more than just proclaiming that everyone will be happy or even building new parks and pedestrian-friendly areas.

Wellbeing is fundamental. So is a conscious effort to promote forming social bonds. A newly balanced approach to technology will also be critical. Behind the scenes, city and national governments must work hard to streamline their processes. They can’t operate in silos, which lead to projects not being realised and complicated procedures for residents who wish to accomplish mundane bureaucratic tasks. The Scandinavians have mastered the art of getting disparate government offices out of their silos and working together on city projects. Effective government is the first line of defence. 

On a civil society level, professionals from fields as diverse as art, psychology, engineering, and urbanism need to find common ground and work together on human-centric plans. Urbanism as an umbrella field needs to balance practical and esoteric concerns to create the right conditions for human-centric design. The happy city, in short, is the result of all sectors of society working together towards common human-centric city goals.