COVID-19 and urban planning: Built environment, health, and well-being in Greek cities before and during the pandemic

Abstract Purpose of Review While there has been extensive discussion on the various forms of temporary uses in urban settings, little is known on the ways in which temporary and health urbanisms connect. Now, a turning point has been reached regarding the interactions between health and the built environment and the contributions made by urban planning and other built environment disciplines. In the context of the post-pandemic city, there is a need to develop a health-led temporary urbanism agenda than can be implemented in various settings both in the Global South and North. Recent Findings Health-led temporary urbanism requires a reinterrogation of current models of urban development including designing multifunctional spaces in urban environments that provide sites for temporary urbanism-related activities. A healthy city is an adaptable city and one that provides opportunities for citizen-led interventions intended to enhance well-being by blending the temporary with the permanent and the planned with the improvised. Summary Health-led temporary urbanism contributes to the call for more trans- and inter-disciplinary discussions allowing to more thoroughly link urban planning and development with health.

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Evaluating the effect of change in the built environment on mental health and subjective well-being: a natural experiment

Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health ◽

10.1136/jech-2019-213591 ◽

2020 ◽

pp. jech-2019-213591 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Bina Ram ◽

Elizabeth S Limb ◽

Aparna Shankar ◽

Claire M Nightingale ◽

Alicja R Rudnicka ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Built Environment ◽

Random Effect ◽

Well Being ◽

Housing Tenure ◽

Subjective Well Being ◽

Group Status ◽

East Village ◽

Health And Well Being ◽

Neighbourhood Perceptions

BackgroundNeighbourhood characteristics may affect mental health and well-being, but longitudinal evidence is limited. We examined the effect of relocating to East Village (the former London 2012 Olympic Athletes’ Village), repurposed to encourage healthy active living, on mental health and well-being.Methods1278 adults seeking different housing tenures in East village were recruited and examined during 2013–2015. 877 (69%) were followed-up after 2 years; 50% had moved to East Village. Analysis examined change in objective measures of the built environment, neighbourhood perceptions (scored from low to high; quality −12 to 12, safety −10 to 10 units), self-reported mental health (depression and anxiety) and well-being (life satisfaction, life being worthwhile and happiness) among East Village participants compared with controls who did not move to East Village. Follow-up measures were regressed on baseline for each outcome with group status as a binary variable, adjusted for age, sex, ethnicity, housing tenure and household clustering (random effect).ResultsParticipants who moved to East Village lived closer to their nearest park (528 m, 95% CI 482 to 575 m), in more walkable areas, and had better access to public transport, compared with controls. Living in East Village was associated with marked improvements in neighbourhood perceptions (quality 5.0, 95% CI 4.5 to 5.4 units; safety 3.4, 95% CI 2.9 to 3.9 units), but there was no overall effect on mental health and well-being outcomes.ConclusionDespite large improvements in the built environment, there was no evidence that moving to East Village improved mental health and well-being. Changes in the built environment alone are insufficient to improve mental health and well-being.

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Green space benefits for health and well-being: A life-course approach for urban planning, design and management

Cities ◽

10.1016/j.cities.2017.03.011 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 66 ◽

pp. 53-62 ◽

Cited By ~ 69

Author(s):

Owen Douglas ◽

Mick Lennon ◽

Mark Scott

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Life Course ◽

Green Space ◽

Well Being ◽

Life Course Approach ◽

Health And Well Being

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Nature in buildings and health design

Oxford Textbook of Nature and Public Health ◽

10.1093/med/9780198725916.003.0015 ◽

2018 ◽

pp. 247-251

Author(s):

Stephen R. Kellert

Keyword(s):

Built Environment ◽

Human Health ◽

Modern Society ◽

Well Being ◽

Healthcare Facilities ◽

Biophilic Design ◽

Evolutionary Origins ◽

Prevailing Paradigm ◽

Functional Development ◽

Health And Well Being

This chapter discusses a hypothesized inherent human need to affiliate with nature (‘biophilia’), its continuing importance to human health and well-being, and how to meet this need in modern society through design of the built environment, with particular focus on healthcare facilities. The theory of biophilia is introduced, its evolutionary origins, effects on human health and well-being, and impediments to its functional development in modern society, particularly the prevailing paradigm of design of the built environment. The chapter describes the notion of ‘biophilic design’, the attempt to address biophilia in the modern built environment. Principles and practices of biophilic design are delineated. The chapter concludes with a brief description of examples of biophilia and biophilic design in existing healthcare facilities.

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Accessing the Neighbourhood: Built Environment Performance for People with Disability

Architecture_MPS ◽

10.14324/111.444.amps.2019v16i1.004 ◽

2019 ◽

Author(s):

Mary Ann Jackson

Keyword(s):

Built Environment ◽

Research Participation ◽

Well Being ◽

Human Condition ◽

Models Of Disability ◽

Macro Scale ◽

People With Disability ◽

Neighbourhood Scale ◽

Environment Performance ◽

Health And Well Being

In the face of rapid urbanisation, increasing diversity of the human condition, ageing populations, failing infrastructure, and mounting evidence that the built environment affects health and well-being, the existing built environment still fails to meet the needs of people with disability. Nevertheless, in something of a parallel universe, improving built environment ‘sustainability’ performance, via measurement, receives much contemporary attention, and analysing the built environment at micro-scale (buildings), meso-scale (neighbourhood) and macro-scale (city-wide) is undertaken from various multidisciplinary perspectives. But, although built environment performance is already measured in many ways, and community inclusion is considered essential for health and well-being, accessibility performance for people with disability, at neighbourhood scale, is rarely considered. The institutional and medical models of disability help explain the inaccessibility of the existing built environment. On the other hand, the social and human rights models of disability offer insight into improving the accessibility of the existing built environment for people with disability. However, ‘disability’ and ‘built environment’ tend not to mix. People with disability continue to experience lack of meaningful involvement in research, participation in decision-making, partnership equality, and direct influence over policy, with the built environment arena increasingly becoming a private-sector activity. The actors involved, however, have little understanding of either the accessibility needs of people with disability, or the inaccessibility, particularly at neighbourhood scale, of the existing built environment. It is in this context that this paper explores the design, planning and politics of an inaccessible built environment, concluding that assessing the built environment accessibility performance for people with disability, at neighbourhood scale, is an essential component in the process of built environment accessibility improvement. Requiring collaboration between the built environment and disability knowledge domains, a new tool measuring neighbourhood accessibility, the Universal Mobility Index (UMI), has emerged and is undergoing further development.

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Biophilic Design Applications: Putting Theory and Patterns into Built Environment Practice

KnE Engineering ◽

10.18502/keg.v2i2.596 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 59 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Paul Downton ◽

David Jones ◽

Josh Zeunert ◽

Phillip Roös

Keyword(s):

Biological Sciences ◽

Built Environment ◽

Well Being ◽

Design Strategy ◽

Environment Design ◽

Human Beings ◽

Biophilic Design ◽

Health And Wellbeing ◽

The Usa ◽

Health And Well Being

In 1984 E.O. Wilson (1984) introduced and popularized the Biophilia hypothesis defining biophilia as "the urge to affiliate with other forms of life" (Kellert & Wilson 1995: 416). Wilson’s biophilia hypothesis suggests that there is an instinctivebond between human beings and other living systems. More recently, in the USA, Browning et al (2014) have proposed ‘14 Patterns of Biophilic Design’ within a framework for linking the human biological sciences and nature to built environment design offering a series of tools for enriching design opportunities, and avenues for design applications as a way to effectively enhance the health and well-being of individuals and society. While biophilia is the theory, biophilic design as advocated by Kellert et al (2008) and Beatley (2010) internationally offers a sustainable design strategy that seeks to reconnect people with the ‘natural environment’. Overall, from what little research has been undertaken internationally in the last 10 years, there is a solid understanding as to the applied application of this theory, its principles and processes to built environment design and no research about to how to retrofit the existing urban fabric using this approach. This paper reviews the application of biophilic design in Australia, including the scope of design, health and wellbeing literature, the ‘14 Patterns of Biophilic Design’ and performative measures now unfolding, brings forward a new Biophilic Design Pattern, and considers the value the approach offers to built environment practice as well as to human and non-human occupants.

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Toothbrush microbiomes feature a meeting ground for human oral and environmental microbiota

Microbiome ◽

10.1186/s40168-020-00983-x ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Ryan A. Blaustein ◽

Lisa-Marie Michelitsch ◽

Adam J. Glawe ◽

Hansung Lee ◽

Stefanie Huttelmaier ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Built Environment ◽

Microbial Communities ◽

Human Microbiome ◽

Human Microbiome Project ◽

Well Being ◽

Taxonomic Diversity ◽

Influential Factors ◽

Multidrug Efflux ◽

Antimicrobial Resistance Gene ◽

Health And Well Being

Abstract Background While indoor microbiomes impact our health and well-being, much remains unknown about taxonomic and functional transitions that occur in human-derived microbial communities once they are transferred away from human hosts. Toothbrushes are a model to investigate the potential response of oral-derived microbiota to conditions of the built environment. Here, we characterize metagenomes of toothbrushes from 34 subjects to define the toothbrush microbiome and resistome and possible influential factors. Results Toothbrush microbiomes often comprised a dominant subset of human oral taxa and less abundant or site-specific environmental strains. Although toothbrushes contained lower taxonomic diversity than oral-associated counterparts (determined by comparison with the Human Microbiome Project), they had relatively broader antimicrobial resistance gene (ARG) profiles. Toothbrush resistomes were enriched with a variety of ARGs, notably those conferring multidrug efflux and putative resistance to triclosan, which were primarily attributable to versatile environmental taxa. Toothbrush microbial communities and resistomes correlated with a variety of factors linked to personal health, dental hygiene, and bathroom features. Conclusions Selective pressures in the built environment may shape the dynamic mixture of human (primarily oral-associated) and environmental microbiota that encounter each other on toothbrushes. Harboring a microbial diversity and resistome distinct from human-associated counterparts suggests toothbrushes could potentially serve as a reservoir that may enable the transfer of ARGs.

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Salutogenic Design: Hidden Opportunities for Health Improvement and Well-Being of the Population

Promyshlennoe i Grazhdanskoe Stroitel stvo ◽

10.33622/0869-7019.2019.07.10-17 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 10-17

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Built Environment ◽

Urban Environment ◽

Well Being ◽

Point Of View ◽

Noncommunicable Diseases ◽

Health Improvement ◽

Preventive Strategies ◽

Economic Point ◽

The World

All over the world, more and more professionals are aware of the urgent need to invest in a healthy and ecological built environment. This landmark shift can occur through the introduction of the principles of salutogenic design, according to which the constructed buildings should be a place that contributes to the saving and improving health, a sense of well-being. The amazing results of the influence of the built environment on health are obtained, which brings the concept of salutogenic design to the fore of the global opportunities of urban planning in providing the health of the population. Salutogenic design and architecture can take its worthy place in the forefront of preventive strategies that have the potential to reduce (decrease) the burden of noncommunicable diseases and change our lives for the better. The review considers the principles and approaches to planning urbanized built environment of the future from the perspective of salutogenic design with one simple goal: to create a healthy society. The solution of this problem requires an interdisciplinary and interagency approach, joint efforts of a number of specialists: architects, medical experts, psychologists, sociologists, designers, engineers, planners. Only a comprehensive approach will make it possible to organize the urban environment in such a way that it allows to preserve health, ecology and would be beneficial from an economic point of view.

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Overview of “Systematic Reviews” of the Built Environment’s Effects on Mental Health

Journal of Environmental and Public Health ◽

10.1155/2020/9523127 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 2020 ◽

pp. 1-10 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Solange Núñez-González ◽

J. Andrés Delgado-Ron ◽

Christopher Gault ◽

Adriana Lara-Vinueza ◽

Denisse Calle-Celi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Psychological Distress ◽

Built Environment ◽

Quality Assessment ◽

Systematic Reviews ◽

Methodological Quality ◽

Well Being ◽

Evidence Base ◽

Health And Well Being

Good mental health is related to mental and psychological well-being, and there is growing interest in the potential role of the built environment on mental health, yet the evidence base underpinning the direct or indirect effects of the built environment is not fully clear. The aim of this overview is to assess the effect of the built environment on mental health-related outcomes. Methods. This study provides an overview of published systematic reviews (SRs) that assess the effect of the built environment on mental health. We reported the overview according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Databases searched until November 2019 included the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, EMBASE, MEDLINE (OVID 1946 to present), LILACS, and PsycINFO. Two authors independently selected reviews, extracted data, and assessed the methodological quality of included reviews using the Assessing Methodological Quality of Systematic Reviews-2 (AMSTAR-2). Results. In total, 357 records were identified from a structured search of five databases combined with the references of the included studies, and eleven SRs were included in the narrative synthesis. Outcomes included mental health and well-being, depression and stress, and psychological distress. According to AMSTAR-2 scores, the quality assessment of the included SRs was categorized as “high” in two SRs and as “critically low” in nine SRs. According to the conclusions of the SRs reported by the authors, only one SR reported a “beneficial” effect on mental health and well-being outcomes. Conclusion. There was insufficient evidence to make firm conclusions on the effects of built environment interventions on mental health outcomes (well-being, depression and stress, and psychological distress). The evidence collected reported high heterogeneity (outcomes and measures) and a moderate- to low-quality assessment among the included SRs.

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The Three Domains of Urban Planning for Health and Well-being

Journal of Planning Literature ◽

10.1177/0885412214520712 ◽

2014 ◽

Vol 29 (3) ◽

pp. 239-256 ◽

Cited By ~ 37

Author(s):

Jennifer L. Kent ◽

Susan Thompson

Keyword(s):

Urban Planning ◽

Well Being ◽

Health And Well Being

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