Overcrowding, noise and air pollution, long commutes and lack of daylight can take a huge toll on the mental well-being of city-dwellers. With mental healthcare services under increasing pressure, could a better approach to urban design and planning provide a solution? The restrictions faced by city residents around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought home just how much urban design can affect our mental health – and created an imperative to seize this opportunity.

Restorative Cities: urban design for mental health and wellbeing

Restorative Cities explores a new way of designing cities, one which places mental health and wellness at the forefront. Establishing a blueprint for urban design for mental health, it examines a range of strategies – from sensory architecture to place-making for creativity and community – and brings a genuinely evidence-based approach that will appeal to designers and planners, health practitioners and researchers alike - and provide compelling insights for anyone who cares about how our surroundings affect us. Written by a psychiatrist and public health specialist, and an environmental psychologist with extensive experience of architectural practice, this much-needed work will prompt debate and inspire built environment students and professionals to think more about the positive potential of their designs for mental well-being.

About the Author

Jenny Roe is Mary Irene DeShong Professor of Design & Health and Director of the Center for Design & Health in the School of Architecture, University of Virginia. An environmental psychologist and former head of Landscape Architecture for an international architectural practice, she has written extensively on restorative environments including for the World Health Organization and The Lancet.

Layla McCay is Director of the Centre for Urban Design and Mental Health, London. A psychiatrist and public health specialist, she is co-editor of Urban Mental Health and managing editor of the Journal of Urban Design and Mental Health; she features regularly in a wide range of print and broadcast media, from The Financial Times to BBC Question Time.

Living in a city, you will be impacted by a lot of input. What you experience always makes you feel, think or act, and your brain has been dealing with these things. You may not talk or interact with all the people you see, but input and environmental pressure may be ruthless. This may drain your energy. A restorative city can help you improve your resilience to manage these inputs and reduce the risk of stress, anxiety, depression and loneliness. Creating a restorative city means making changes in the environment, so that when you work every day, you have the opportunity to let your brain breathe in the space of relaxation or stimulation.

We know that with the increasing urban population, the challenge of mental health is becoming more and more serious. We also know that psychological problems are not only about personal feelings, but also affect the success of the city. The OECD reports that the annual costs associated with mental illness account for 4% of GDP. If people can't work as they want, productivity will decline. Although the methods of urban design can not solve all psychological problems, these methods have not been really valued now.

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1350112887/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1350112887&linkCode=as2&tag=kingpus-20&linkId=b01bda95ab58d4bc8832f7fd73a6ea4e">Restorative Cities: urban design for mental health and wellbeing</a>