The Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health brings together research and ideas from researchers and practitioners working across diverse fields at the nexus of urban design and mental health. It is a peer-reviewed journal published by the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health.

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AUGUST 2021
GUEST EDITORS: Daniel Gan and Zdravko Trivic

Edition 7: Aging City

Edition 7 is guest-edited by Daniel Gan and Zdravko Trivic and focuses on their area of expertise: the aging city. In many cities around the world, populations are growing older. People aged over 65 years old are the fastest-growing population demographic group and the implications of this demographic shift on urban design and planning are still being understood. This themed edition offers new insight.

Highlights

New directions for interdisciplinary research and participatory research

Implementing dementia-friendly neighbourhoods

Older people's mental health in suburbs v urban neighbourhoods

How green spaces may prevent cognitive decline

Age and Dementia Friendly Streetscapes Toolkit

City case studies from Sydney and Lagos

Restorative Cities book review

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS
OCTOBER 2020
​Editor: Layla McCay

Edition 6: COVID City

Edition 6 of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health published during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the full extent and nature of the impact of COVID-19 on urban design remains to be understood, this Edition explores the initial impact from a mental health perspective, and brings city insights from Adelaide, Ankara, Delhi, George Town, Montreal, Toronto, Washington and more.

Highlights

Public space adaptability and resilience in reducing mental health inequalities during COVID-19.
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Impact of COVID-19 on social gatherings and perceptions of risk in public space

COVID-19 Photoessay

Emotional response to different types of nature exposure

City case studies from Adelaide, Ankara, Delhi, George Town, Montreal, Toronto, and Washington, DC.

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS
SEPTEMBER 2018
EDITOR: Layla McCay

Edition 5: Urban Play

Edition 5 of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health explores play: from how the urban environment affects young people's mental health to playing with ideas for the urban environment, with city insight from Brussels Charlotte, Copenhagen, Delhi, New York City, Las Vegas, Londonderry and Qazvin. 

Highlights

Las Vegas UD/MH case study

Play and mental health: in Copenhagen, and in high-rise towers

Mental health by design in New York schools

Behaviour blockchain for healthy cities

Creating shared safe space along a notorious river

Perceiving urban aesthetics for mental wellbeing
FEBRUARY 2018
EDITOR: Layla McCay

Edition 4: Alone Together

Edition 4 of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health explores the impact of isolation from different angles from solitary confinement to gated communities, focuses on Hong Kong, and brings in young people's voices to understand the impact of large-scale development on local communities. We also provide a new air pollution review.

Highlights

Hong Kong city case study

Undoing solitary urban design

Quantifying the role of urban place factors in mental wellbeing

High speed rail infrastructure: construction and connection

Life in a gated community

Air pollution, mental health, and implications for urban design: a review

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEBRUARY 2017
EDITOR: ​Layla McCay

Edition 2: Planning and Designing for Urban Mental Health

Edition 2 of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health explores some of the planning and design determinants of mental health that can be addressed by urban planners, architects and other citymakers.

Highlights

​Associations between architecture, urban environment and severe psychosis

Neighbourhood amenities and depressive symptoms in Older Adults

One of the first studies of urban environments factors and happiness in Tehran 

​Spatial design for child development and mental health in urban environments 

​A new agenda for urban psychology: out of the laboratory and onto the streets

​Lonelitopia: how urbanism of mass destruction is crushing the American dream

Productivity and urban mental health: an economic lens 

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS
FEBRUARY 2016
GUEST EDITOR: Itai Palti

Edition 1: Conscious Cities

The theme of the first Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health is conscious cities. Conscious cities is the concept of urban environments that are responsive to our needs through data analysis and the application of behavioural science in architecture and planning.

Highlights

Smartphone apps to understand links between urban design and mental health

Planning for wellbeing

Social media can help urban planners and designers to understand and heal traumascapes

Improving the lives of people with dementia through urban design

The future of applied neuroscience research in architecture education

Might beautiful places have a quantifiable impact on our wellbeing?

FULL TABLE OF CONTENTS

About the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health

The Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health is published online by the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, an international think tank that seeks to answer the question: how can we build better mental health into our cities?

All articles published by the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health are licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Get involved
If you are interested in becoming an editor, peer reviewer or submitting a research paper, analysis paper or case study for a future edition, or if you have other feedback or ideas for the journal, please contact us.
ISSN 2398-4082 (online)