Despite the long history shared by city-building and health, one particularly important and interesting piece of the urban puzzle, the built environment, remains an abstract concept outside of academic and policy circles. This presents us with an opportunity to broaden the city-building debate beyond piecemeal conversations about road tolls, bike lanes and condominium developments, to consideration of the built environment as a whole. Exploring concepts like the built environment may provide some clarity as to what it means in the context of contemporary city-building, how it interacts with other social determinants of health and how these interactions impact our daily lives.