RECOMMENDED READING

Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health and Wellbeing

Publication date: 12th August, 2021
Ever since the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health was launched, architects, planners, public and mental health practitioners, urban specialists, and academics of many varieties, all over the world, have asked us the same question: what book can I read to understand how to design and plan cities for mental health and wellbeing? 

After spending the past five years speaking to experts, reading (and publishing) the research in this emerging field, and listening to the needs, experiences, views, challenges, achievements and insights from our diverse globally-distributed colleagues and contacts, we are delighted to be bringing you the book to fill the gap and meet this need: Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health and Wellbeing. 

This book is authored by Jenny Roe, a UD/MH Fellow who is a professor of design and health, an environmental psychologist and former head of landscape architecture for an international architectural practice; and Layla McCay, the Director of The Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, public health specialist and former psychiatrist. It contains a wealth of expertise, from the authors, from the science, and from the wide community of people working at the nexus of urban design for mental health. 

The book brings together the latest evidence and the practice for the first time, to provide:
  • A robust scientific basis for this growing multidisciplinary field
  • An exciting new Restorative Cities framework that defines and integrates seven pillars of a restorative city.
  • Clear but flexible guidelines at neighbourhood and city level
  • Beautiful illustrations by designer Spring Braccia-Beck along with colour photographs for examples of good practice

This is a must-read book for anyone interested in urban design and planning for mental health and wellbeing. You can pre-order now.

Buy the book

PREORDER: Order from your favourite online or physical bookshop, or get a 35% discount when ordering directly from Bloomsbury:
Discount codes: UK and rest of world: RESCITIES35
US RESCITIES35US
Canada RESCITIES35CA
​Australia RESCITIES35AU

Reviews

"Offers deep health expertise translated into the practical strategies that respond to today's demand for cities that prioritise their residents' health"
​- Joanna Frank, President and CEO, Center for Active Design
"Post-Covid-19, cities must be equitable and sustainable, and people should live more healthily and happily. Restorative Cities shows how we can do this, by focusing urbanism on mental health and wellbeing"
​- Gil Penalosa, Founder and Chair of 8 80 Cities, Ambassador for World Urban Parks
If you would like to publish a review 
Please contact academicreviews@bloomsbury.com to see if you are eligible to receive a review copy of the book and once it's published, email layla@urbandesignmentalhealth.com and we'll share it here.

Op-Eds

A number of blogs and op-eds are planned for the book. When published we will share them here.

Book Tour

Book launch
12th August at 12 noon UK time
Online event. Details and tickets here.

If you would like one or both of the authors to participate in an event, please email layla@urbandesignmentalhealth.com