Well-being, social interaction and physical activity: encouraging healthy behaviours through quality urban design
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Date
2019
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AESOP
Abstract
In recent years, the healthy city topic has become more and more present in both research studies and urban actions. According with many principles declared in the Quito New Urban Agenda, the centrality of this topic is due to many important factors, including the climate change; the lengthening of human lifespan; the necessity of a wider accessibility in social, physical and environmental sense. Although the recognition of the importance of liveable spaces for keeping people in good health and improve social interaction, it is difficult to demonstrate that good urban design is capable to reduce hearth and other kinds of diseases. However, the increasing in the number of people who spend time, walk and cycle on the streets can be shown easily and this is a first measure to demonstrate the success of the environment from the healthy point of view. Starting from these premises, this work will illustrate the principal definition of healthy city mainly related to public spaces and propose the Charter of urban health, liveability and happiness with 25 principles. The principles – following an holistic approach - should be considered as dynamic, in keeping with the increasingly rapid rates of change in a place and are both a check-list and guide lines for sustainable spaces.
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Keywords
healthy city, well-being, urban design, public space