How we work
Shaping the psychology of cities. Sharing the knowledge to build healthier urban futures.
How we work
A system for embedding human experience into urban planning systems, policy, and practice
The Centre for Urban Psychology operates through the CUP Human-Centred Planning System (HCPS), a practical framework that helps cities diagnose wellbeing challenges, define human-centred outcomes, translate evidence into planning and governance tools, test solutions through pilots, and demonstrate measurable urban wellbeing outcomes.
Rather than treating wellbeing, behaviour, or mental health as secondary considerations, CUP works to institutionalise them within planning systems themselves.
Our approach
CUP’s work is grounded in a simple principle:
Cities work better when planning systems are designed around how people actually live, behave, and experience urban environments.
The HCPS provides cities with a structured pathway to:
- understand the psychological and behavioural impacts of urban environments,
- define human-centred outcomes,
- embed these outcomes into planning and governance tools,
- test solutions in real places, and
- measure and scale what works.