Build4People

To facilitate science–society transfer and raise awareness among relevant stakeholders in the fields of sustainable building and sustainable neighbourhood development, Build4People has been working intensively to publicly document and communicate its transdisciplinary research.

Our communication activities span multiple social media channels and address diverse target groups, reaching far beyond our own scientific community. Above all, however, we aim to engage the interested public and encourage behavioural change towards greater sustainability.

This transparent approach — combining good scientific practice with clear visualization and state-of-the-art science communication — is a central transformative component of Build4People.

In this context, we are particularly proud that Build4People’s presence on LinkedIn, the business- and employment-oriented social networking platform, has reached the milestone of 1,500 followers. This is by far the highest number among all research projects supported under the SURE (Sustainable Development of Urban Regions) funding priority of the German Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space (BMFTR).

Looking ahead, our goal is to continuously professionalize Build4People’s science communication and further strengthen our position as the most widely followed and far-reaching research project within the SURE funding line.

A big thank you to all our followers, partners, colleagues, and supporters for being part of this journey! 🙏🌍

Stay tuned — and let’s continue building a more sustainable future together! 🌱🏙️

#Build4People #SustainableUrbanDevelopment #SustainableCities #UrbanTransformation #SustainableBuilding #SustainableNeighbourhoods #UrbanSustainability #TransdisciplinaryResearch #ScienceCommunication #ResearchImpact #UrbanResearch #FutureCities #Sustainability #TransformativeResearch #BMFTR_SUREregions

Over the coming months, Build4People will take a closer look at Phnom Penh’s potential to become a more child-friendly and inclusive city.

Child-friendly cities are important because they create safe, healthy and inclusive environments where children can grow, learn and develop independently.

Led by Anke Blöbaum, together with consortium lead Michael Waibel, the CIUS Cambodian Institute for Urban Studies Organization, represented by Tep Makathy, and WAE (women in architecture and engineering), represented by May Sokunlanita, a series of activities will explore how urban planning and design can better respond to the needs and perspectives of children and their families.

The initiative will combine research, knowledge exchange, education and practical urban design:

🚸 Listening to children’s needs and stakeholders
We will conduct focus group discussions with parents and teachers, complemented by expert interviews with key stakeholders. The aim is to generate evidence-based insights into the current situation, needs and aspirations of children and families in Phnom Penh.

🚸 Sharing international knowledge
An interdisciplinary lecture on Child-Friendly Cities from a global perspective will bring state-of-the-art knowledge and international experiences to Phnom Penh, with local urban planners, designers and other relevant stakeholders as key target groups.

🚸 Turning knowledge into design
Building on the lecture, Build4People will facilitate an urban design exercise for planning students. Working with a real urban development site (TP Moral Group), students will explore how the principles of child-friendly and inclusive urban development can be translated into concrete spatial visions.

🚸 Imagining the future of Phnom Penh
Based on these visions, Build4People will support the production of an urban utopia video illustrating what a more child-friendly environment could look like in Phnom Penh.

🚸 Creating lasting impact
To ensure that these activities contribute to long-term change, a dedicated sub-chapter on Child-Friendly Cities will be developed for the Build4People Transformation Toolbox Guideline “Governance & Participation”. This will translate lessons learned into a practical resource for future urban planning and design processes.

We are thrilled about this exciting endeavour and look forward to working together towards a more inclusive, sustainable and child-friendly Phnom Penh. By making cities better for children, we can improve the quality of life for everyone.

It was a great pleasure to present research from the Build4People project at the International Congress of Applied Psychology (ICAP) in Florence, bringing together around 2,500 psychologists from very different fields and areas of applied psychology.

On 22 July 2026, Dr. Anke Blöbaum, Senior Researcher at Magdeburg University and Leader of the Build4People Work Package „Behaviour Change“, had the opportunity to present findings from the transdisciplinary Build4People project on “Subjective Quality of Life and Place Attachment – Insights from Phnom Penh, Cambodia.”

The presentation, the abstract of which got jointly prepared by Dr. Anke Blöbaum, Prof. Dr. Ellen Matthies, Dr. Michael Waibel, University of Hildesheim and Prof. Dr. Sok Serey from Royal University of Phnom Penh was part of a session on Urban Built Environments, providing a valuable space for exchange with colleagues working on related questions of people, places, and urban environments.

Based on a representative household survey with 750 face-to-face interviews, we explored how psychological factors, perceptions of the urban environment, and resilience resources relate to subjective quality of life in Phnom Penh.

One particularly interesting finding was the important role of satisfaction with social relationships, which emerged as the strongest predictor of subjective quality of life. Place attachment also appears to play an integrative role, connecting social, psychological, and environmental dimensions of people’s experiences of their urban environment.

Beyond presenting the findings, the conference was a very fruitful opportunity to discuss our work with international colleagues, receive thoughtful feedback, and reflect on theoretical and methodological perspectives for future research.

Finally, we would like to express our deep gratitude to everyone who contributed to the inspiring discussions at ICAP 2026, and to all colleagues involved in the empirical and applied research of the Build4People project.

#ICAP2026 #AppliedPsychology #EnvironmentalPsychology #QualityofLife #PlaceAttachment #UrbanTransformation #PhnomPenh #Cambodia #Build4People #TransdisciplinaryResearch #MagdeburgUniversity

How can evaluation support transdisciplinary research and projects in realising their full potential? In our view, evaluation is far more than just a final, quantitative assessment of project outcomes – it is a key tool for continuously reflecting on processes, strengthening collaboration and fostering shared learning.

Within the Build4People project, the team from Otto-von-Guericke University Madgeburg, represented by Dr. Anke Blöbaum and Neele Worthmann, therefore supports our implementation process not only through a summative evaluation but also through a formative process evaluation. In other words: We focus not only on the implementation of our developed products but also on the quality of collaboration, communication and coordination within our international and interdisciplinary team.

Particularly in transdisciplinary projects, where different specialist disciplines, cultures and perspectives come together, such an ongoing evaluation lays the groundwork for recognising challenges at an early stage, identifying weaknesses in internal communication, jointly developing structures and adjusting as the project progresses, thereby providing sustainable support for the project’s success and implementation. Examining one’s own structures and internal communication is not merely a pleasant exercise; it requires additional effort from all project members beyond their normal project work, the openness to address one’s own mistakes, trust in project partners, and the flexibility to deviate from established plans in order to support the achievement of the shared project goal.

To provide targeted support for these development processes, Otto-von-Guericke University Madgeburg regularly carries out standardised quantitative surveys on key aspects of internal project collaboration – both before and after joint project activities. All in all, the survey consisted of 36 closed and three open questions. The insights gained were then reflected upon within the team and served as a valuable basis for the continuous development of working methods, communication structures and cooperation processes.

We are looking forward to taking this process further; it is an important learning experience for the whole Build4People team and contributes to understanding how evaluation, as a tool for learning and development, can support transdisciplinary research and sustainable transformation.

At the beginning of our survey, we assured participants that the specific results will not be disclosed to outside parties. As this assurance is not negated by the anonymization process we kindly ask for your understanding, that the explanations above focus more on the methodology and rationale behind the formative evaluation process. If you would like more information about our evaluation, we would be delighted to share our thoughts and experiences with you.

Finally, Build4People would like to sincerely thank Dr. Anke Blöbaum and Neele Worthmann for their dedicated efforts to prepare and to conduct the survey, to summarize and to visualize the empirical results and last but not least, to organize the joint internal B4P reflection meetings.

#Build4People #Evaluation #ProcessEvaluation #formativeprocessevaluation #TransdisciplinaryResearch #Collaboration #Implementation #Sustainability #Research #Learning