Research for Design: Research on Healthy Urban Environment

Abstract

The lecture was invited by the School of Architecture in the South China University of Technology. It was for scholars, professionals, and government officers in the field of urban planning and landscape architecture. It will also be open for general public. Hundreds of millions of people are living and working in highly dense urban environments. Urban residents are experiencing a jungle of concrete and steel, artificial and barren urban spaces, visual and acoustic distractions, and stressful social environment. Their mental health is heavily challenged by those environmental and social factors. A great amount of evidence show mental stress, fatigue, and depression are threatening urban residents’ health. These mental health symptoms would lead to impairment of immunization function, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, cancers (some types), suicide, or operational accidents. This presentation will introduce my three relevant studies conducted in Hong Kong, Shen Zhen, and Chicago. I will demonstrate how highly dense urban environment on ordinary citizens’ mental health and raise a discussion on research methods and future questions.