What Makes a Place Liveable?
Exploring liveability through community collaging
Cities are changing fast, with growing populations, rising costs, and new pressures on housing, transport, and the environment. In this context, the idea of “liveability” has become a buzzword in politics and planning. But what does it really mean to live in a “liveable” place—and who gets to decide?
Most research and policy use numbers and indicators to measure liveability: the amount of green space, housing affordability, or transport accessibility. These measures are useful, but they don’t tell the whole story. They often miss the everyday experiences, emotions, and cultural connections that shape how people actually live and feel in their cities.
Our research asked a simple but important question: What makes a place liveable? To explore this, we worked with residents in Wellington and Hamilton using an arts-based method called collaging. Participants created collages using images, words, and materials to represent their experiences of the city. This creative process allowed people to express ideas and feelings that might not emerge in a traditional survey or interview.
The results showed that liveability is not just about infrastructure. Residents highlighted the importance of connectedness—to people, places, and nature. They spoke about feeling safe, welcomed, and recognised in their communities. They also revealed tensions between collective ideals (like sustainability) and everyday realities (such as housing costs or transport barriers). For many, liveability was tied to cultural recognition, inclusive public spaces, and opportunities to participate in shaping their cities.
From these insights, we developed a new conceptual framework of liveability. It shows that liveability is:
Relational – about social ties, belonging, and care.
Dynamic – changing across life stages and social conditions.
Cultural and place-based – grounded in histories, identities, and local values.
Plural – experienced differently across communities.
Multiscalar – shaped by both everyday interactions and broader systems.
Procedural – dependent on participation, governance, and voice.
In short, liveability is not a checklist of features—it’s an ongoing, collective process of making cities places where people can live well.
This work offers fresh insights for planners, policymakers, and communities, showing that creating liveable cities requires more than technical solutions. It calls for approaches that recognise lived experience, embrace cultural diversity, and support inclusive participation in shaping urban futures.