The blandemic is harming us. So what are we going to do about it?

The Humanise campaign is rooted in science. In September, we published a global evidence review, effectively demonstrating that the external façades of buildings can affect our brains, bodies and behaviours.

Through our public opinion research, we also know that there’s a huge gap between the buildings people want and the buildings they’re actually served.

We know we have evidence of need, and a positive public. So what’s stopping change?

Before joining Humanise, I spent 11 years working for the social research organisation the Joseph Rowntree Foundation. We published a lot of academic research about the causes and impacts of poverty. The academics I worked with were deeply committed. And they often believed that if we simply presented more facts, more data and more evidence, people would be persuaded.

However, the evidence about effective communications, and my own experience, tells me that this strategy often fails. Facts and evidence matter – but rarely enough to move people.

We have to explain why an issue matters in a way that will actually be heard by the people we need to reach. In short, we need to tell a better story. So I’d like to share seven tips from the world of communications and campaigning about how we can tell a more compelling story for change.

Tip 1: Start with why

In the worlds of academia, architecture and design, we’re often very good at explaining the what and the how. But we can forget to explain the why.

Why should ordinary people care about what buildings look like, as long as they keep us warm and dry? Why should a politician, a mayor, a developer or an investor act?

Maslow’s hierarchy reminds us that people need more than shelter and security. We need to belong, to feel connected and proud of where we live.

So when people dismiss aesthetics as a nice-to-have, we have to communicate that this issue actually taps into fundamental human needs.

That’s why our campaign strapline is simple: human beings need human buildings.

Tip 2: Avoid catastrophising

In campaigning, there’s always a temptation to make the most urgent case possible, which can translate into crisis framing (‘the refugee /  climate / housing / cost-of-living / mental health crisis’).

But crisis language can backfire, making your argument feel exaggerated, and making people feel overwhelmed and likely to switch off.

So we need to be clear about harm, but not hopeless; urgent, but not hysterical; and evidence-led, but not alarmist.

We need to give people a reason to act, not another reason to despair.

Tip 3: Show, don’t tell

We don’t believe the blandemic will be solved only through more regulation or more policy. Of course, policy matters. But it also needs a mindset shift. It’s not enough to tell people there’s a problem. We have to show them what better looks like.

We’ve developed five Humanise principles, and we’re creating practical guides to help others apply them in development and city frameworks. We’ve also published a guide for UK mayors, showing how they can use new devolved powers to set higher standards and clearer expectations for development in their cities, and included plenty of inspiration from other cities getting it right.

So if we want people to act, we have to show them the route. Not just: “this is bad.” But: “this is possible – and this is how you can do it.”

Tip 4: Celebrate heroes

In campaigning, it’s easy to focus on the villain. For us, it’s the blandemic: boring buildings, dull development, lifeless places.

But a campaign can’t survive on villains alone. We need heroes.

That’s why we’ve been working hard to showcase joyful, engaging, more human buildings in practice. For example, our recent collaboration with UK housing charity Shelter celebrated joyful social housing around the world. Because why should there be an absence of joy for the people who need it most?

Good campaigns don’t just point to what’s wrong. They help people imagine what could be right.

Tip 5: Talk like a human

In the short time since I’ve been working with neuroarchitecture experts, I’ve come across quite a lot of gobbledygook.

Architecture is already full of specialist language. Some is precise and useful. But some excludes people who aren’t experts. In Thomas Heatherwick’s book Humanise, he describes some of this language as ‘archibollocks’.

If we want people to understand us, we have to speak in a way they can understand. That isn’t dumbing down. It’s making the complex clear and the technical meaningful; removing barriers rather than building them.

We’ve been working hard to translate the science around harmful buildings into accessible social content for non-specialist audiences. The fact that some of that content has had some of our highest engagement shows there is an appetite if you make it easy to engage with.

Tip 6: Put people in the picture

Our argument is that buildings affect people’s health and wellbeing. So it would make no sense for us to use the classic type of architectural photographs which show amazing buildings but no people in them.

I recommend you let people literally see the relationship between human beings and the built environment.

And please: resist the drone. People experience cities from the street, not fifty feet up in the air. Our imagery needs to represent the way people really experience buildings: at eye level, at walking pace, on the school run, and on the way to work.

Tip 7: Don’t be boring

There are so many urgent and important issues competing for our attention, it’s hard to cut through. So why not use some humour or surprise?

Sometimes being too serious can make people turn away, but humour can help an argument feel more approachable, and gives permission for people to engage with something that might otherwise feel technical, niche or abstract.

Again, this isn’t about trivialising the issue – it’s about making it easier to enter. And if we’re campaigning for more joyful places, our communications should probably contain a little joy too.

Where next?

I don’t want to give the impression that we at Humanise have all the answers. We absolutely don’t. We know there’s still much more work to do, and a need to keep rinsing and repeating – because one speech, one report, one campaign moment is never enough.

But we are seeing signs of cut-through in public debate. And we are beginning to see evidence that, through Humanise, others are finding the language, confidence and tools to campaign in their own cities.

In conclusion, I’ll just say that we can’t simply expect people to understand the harm of lifeless places, especially when they’re facing so many other challenges. But we can make it easier for them, by connecting evidence with emotion, by linking science with everyday experience and by showing what better looks like.

Scientific research matters enormously. But if it stays in journals, conferences and specialist conversations, it won’t change the streets people walk down every day. Our task is to help that knowledge travel – into planning meetings, mayoral manifestos, media debates and ordinary conversations between citizens. Because human beings need human buildings.

This article is based on a keynote at the Mind Body Space Symposium held in Amsterdam in July 2026.