CURATED RESEARCH AND OP-EDS
Read interesting op-eds and essays about urban design and mental health
"Exactly what makes parks and trees so healthy for people remains a matter of ongoing discussion. One credible theory, pioneered by Michigan psychologist Stephen Kaplan, holds that nature restores and refreshes our brains, much like sleep." |
"If we are going to get to grips with the consequences of urbanisation for mental health today, we need to start thinking very differently about city living – not simply as a form of social organisation that has biological consequences, but as a form of life whose neurological and sociological aspects are quite inseparable from one another." |
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Theory - the built environment and mental health
Architecture Ireland, 2015 |
"Most of the emphasis continues to be placed on the impact of the building on the physical health and safety of its occupants. But what about the mental health impact of our buildings? It can be argued that mental health is doubly important." |
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How trees can make city people happier (and vice versa)
Next City, 2015 |
"There’s plenty of evidence that hints of nature help us humans live in the urban spaces we’ve built... areas that have the most trees along the streets also had fewer prescriptions for antidepressants" |
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Designing cities that positively impact mental health
Spacing Toronto, March 2014 |
"If these resources are optimized, design and city building may well emerge as an integral strategy for improving mental health" |
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Sick cities: why urban living can be bad for your mental health
The Guardian, Feb 2014 |
"stress is only part of the impact that cities have on our brains. There's a lot of what we call urban advantage" |
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What makes a 'happy city'?
Cities, July 2013 |
"there is huge potential for the new emergent Science of Cities to engage with the very important debates on what makes people happy and, in particular, on what cities and regions can do about it" |
Read some of the key research on urban design and mental health
"The Health Impact Assessment of greenspace offers an overview of the best available international scientific evidence on the health impacts (both positive and negative) of greenspace." |
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Stressed spaces: mental health and architecture
Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 2013 |
"asylum-style architectural design is anathema to mental health practice... we question the extent to which seemingly innovative designs match contemporary mental health models of care." |
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Stress and the city: Urban decay
Nature, October 2012 |
"Cities are already great economic and cultural incubators... the new science of urban stress could also allow them to be turned into cradles of mental health" |
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City living marks the brain
Nature, June 2011 |
"a first step towards defining how urban life can affect brain biology in a way that has a potentially major impact on society" |
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Stress and the city
Nature, June 2011 |
"living in a city environment changes brain response during a social stressor" |
"Our results... link the urban environment for the first time to social stress processing" |
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The current status of urban-rural differences in psychiatric disorders
Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica |
"Significant... urban–rural (differences) were found for the total prevalence of psychiatric disorders, and for mood disorders and anxiety disorders." |
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Schizophrenia and urbanicity
Schizophrenia Bulletin, Oct 2005 |
"one-third of all schizophrenia incidence may be related to... environmental factors operating in the urban environment" |
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Schizophrenia and city life
The Lancet, July 1992 |
"undetermined environmental factors found in cities increase the risk of schizophrenia" |
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