Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health; 2025:1
ISSN 2398-4082 (online)  |  https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.19386346

Volume 10: UNCERTAINTIES

Introduction

Exploring the Uncertainties at the Intersection of Urban Design and Mental Health
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​Volume 10 of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health examines uncertainties at the intersection of urban design and mental health, asking to what extent empirical evidence can inform design for mental health. It pushes the boundaries of evidence-based design, offering critical perspectives on the tension between research and development and presenting bold, reflective work that seeks to redefine or defend the role of evidence in shaping mentally healthy cities. Original research articles, theoretical essays, case studies, and dialogues explore the interplay between empirical evidence, conceptual frameworks, and design implementation, with contributions that engage theory-practice relationships, challenge conventional evidence hierarchies, and advance both theoretical discourse and evidence-based practice for healthier urban environments.
Research

Uncertainty in the Absence of Urban Design
​A Right to the City Analysis of Informal Spatial Justice in Zanjan’s Palestine Neighborhood
​Saeid Gholami

Challenges in Translating Neurourbanistic Research into Urban Design
Insights into Practice
​Tanja Käser

Home, Work, Play
​Participatory Design to Promote Socio Spatial Well-Being for Urban and Rural Hybrid Working Generation Rent
Mathilda Blunt

Review 

The Labelling-Evidence Mismatch in Mental Health Promoting NbS Projects
A Global Review of Case Studies
Lara de Souza Renhe, Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo

Dialogue

Invisible Threads: Borrowed Landscape as Emotional Memory
Designing places that restore and remember
Rob Playford

Community Hubs as Essential Infrastructure in Proximity-Based Urban Design 
Addressing Structural Barriers to Mental Health
Navid Amarlou

The Uncertainties of Certainty
​The Third Place Dual Crisis and Inadequate Mental Health Measures
Ahella Abdelghaffar

Reimagining Health Care in Africa
From Biomedicine and Hospitals to a Holistic, Community Based Model
Josiane Carine Tantchou

​Invisible in the City
How to Overcome a Blind Faith in Evidence-Based Design That Fails People at the Margins
Megan Oliver

Case Studies (Cities + Projects)

The Dual Role of Children's Creative Expression
Participatory Art as Process and Evidence of Wellbeing in Play Environments
Malak Mehta

Architecture and Salutogenesis
A Design-Led Case Study of Police-Station Redesign and Perceived Affective Safety in Lahore
Franklin Livingston

About Volume 10

Publisher
The Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health is an open-access, peer-reviewed, indexed and multi-disciplinary journal, 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?

Editor in Chief
Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo

Co-Editors
Greg Rybarczyk and Nélida Quintero

Associate Editors
Erin Sharp-Newton, Liqing Zhang, Daniel Gan, Colin Ellard

Cover
Mathilda Blunt

Submit to Volume 11

Stay Tuned we will be announcing a new call for papers for Volume 11 soon!

We seek papers at the nexus of urban design and mental health.