UD/MH London Dialogue

London: 23rd February 2016 at the Wellcome Trust

WHAT WE TALKED ABOUT: a summary

Making social spaces, finding active spaces, starting with young people's environments, and breaking down barriers
The Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health's second dialogue took place in London with  five diverse speakers talking about their particular perspectives and experience at the nexus of urban design and mental health. Please watch the videos to learn more.
Dr Layla McCay, UD/MH Director, introduces urban design and mental health and launches the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health.
Wendy de Silva, Architect and Mental Health Lead for the design and technology practice IBI Group was first to the stage. With extensive experience in designing facilities for mental health care, including awards for innovation and best in class design, Wendy discussed what the design of healthcare facilities to support the mental health of people in hospital can teach us about how to to leverage urban design to support mental health in the wider urban environment. With a focus  on the recovery model of care, she emphasized the importance of creating places in which people feel safe, relaxed, in control, and part of a community. She proposed a range of design opportunities to support mental health such as creating free access to outside space, and empowering people to participate in useful, ordinary daily activities.
Lucy Saunders from Transport for London discusses the mental health opportunities in transport, specifically the Healthy Street Approach in London. Lucy emphasises the connection between physical activity and mental health, and with 80% of London's public space being streets, she makes the case that streets should be designed to provide a more conducive environment for people to socialise and be more physically active.  She discusses whether we need to think about the monetary value of doing so, to help understand and demonstrate the benefits, and enable comparisons with values already ascribed by planners to moving traffic.
Dinesh Bhurga, professor of Mental Health and Cultural Diversity at the Institute of Psychiatry at King’s College London and President of the World Psychiatric Association discusses the opportunities for urban design in addressing public health. Professor Bhurga highlights that rates of people with anxiety, depression and addiction are much higher in urban areas compared to non-urban areas, and that urban design plays a role in developing an environment that is supportive or detrimental to mental health. He proposes that key risk factors to be addressed to improve urban mental health are unemployment, poor parenting, and overcrowding, and with half of mental health disorders emerging before the age of 15, he identifies schools as an important opportunity for positive impact - including through good design. He concludes that  "mental health is far too important to just be left to the experts", and encourages citymakers to take action.
Graham Marshall discusses the Prosocial Place Programme, which he established in partnership with researchers at Liverpool and Middlesex Universities. The objective of this programme is to develop an integrated evidence based approach to urban planning, design, development and stewardship.  In particular, they seek to find ways to create spaces that promote positive social interaction and belonging to improve wellbeing. Graham makes the case that cities must be designed for wellness rather than only focussing on ensuring they are "well designed", and good stewardship is integral to good urban mental health and wellbeing. He calls for us to switch from discussing the 'built environment' to talking about the 'living environment' to refocus priorities in architecture, planning, and other placemaking activities; to shift from an objective of 'survival' to that of 'thrival'.
Georgina Hosang, a lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London and London Mood Project lead shares her experiences representing the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health at the Unites Nations Urban Thinkers event in Kuching, Malaysia, and how mental health is currently fitting into wider Habitat III thinking. She led a participatory session of international participants that identified key barriers to the systematic integration of mental health thinking into urban design as being stigma and lack of knowledge.

DISCUSSION

After the presentations, the diverse audience from academia, architecture, interior design, transportation, urban planning, mental health, and a range of other professionals provided some energetic discussion that extended over to the reception, and lasted until the lights were turned off at the venue. Topics included whether attachment theory could apply to cities (the verdict: yes, probably); mental and physical health are two sides of the same coin and must be addressed together; positive social interaction is a key component of urban design to improve mental health, and that all the professions involved in designing and developing cities have a responsibility to talk about mental health to help reduce stigma and discrimination and drive positive impact.

SLIDES


TRANSCRIPTS

Graham Marshall: Placemaking for mental health and wellbeing
prosocial_-_urban_design_for_mental_health_-_the_london_dialogue_23.2.16__-_transcript.pdf
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SOCIAL MEDIA COVERAGE: Storify

PHOTOGRAPHS

THANKS

Thanks to the Wellcome Trust for hosting and filming this event
Video editing by Kevin Kim, Rutgers University
Photos by Nicholas Vassiliades, Goldsmiths
Summary by Katarzyna Klijer, Goldsmiths