Positive Urban Planning
How can we create cities that make us healthy and happy? Researchers are answering that question with unique studies, from how trees affect pregnancy outcomes to the importance of designing cities for young people.
How can we create cities that make us healthy and happy? Researchers are answering that question with unique studies, from how trees affect pregnancy outcomes to the importance of designing cities for young people.
Designers can benefit from a better understanding of how people think about and react to the natural environment.
Saad a professor at Concordia University, traces most acts of consumption, commercial and otherwise, to fundamental human drives for survival, reproduction, kin selection, and reciprocal altruism.
Evidence continues to accumulate linking experiences in nature with human well-being at a fundamental level.
A recent press release from the University of Illinois discusses important links between green spaces and health, with a focus on research done by Frances Kuo, a professor there.
The USDA Forest Service i-Tree Tools can be used to assess the “local, tangible ecosystem services that trees provide” either individually or in groups.
Several recent studies have assessed best practices for school design, particularly design that encourages students to exercise.
The popular press encourages people to take walks to become more fit, but what physical features encourage people to walk recreationally? How can being outside during those walks, for example, improve mental health?
Nature experiences have an important influence on human attitudes and behaviors.
In this blog, I frequently discuss ways the physical environment can be used to increase the likelihood that people are in a positive mood.