According to statistics from the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), 65% of people admit to feeling better when they are near water, whether it be the sea, a river or any other aquatic concentration. This is what has been called “blue health”, an improvement in our physical and psychological well-being that originates from contact with this element.
Why does contact with water make us feel better? In an article published on frontiers.org, it is explained how bringing urban centers closer to coastal areas can lead to a significant improvement in the health of their inhabitants. According to this article, various studies have come to the conclusion that contact with water and, in general, with nature, has a beneficial impact on our body, either directly (regulation of air temperature, which greatly helps to our body), either through other means, such as the greater social contact that comes with being close to nature, where you can do outdoor activities.
In today’s article we make a brief analysis of How urban planning can impact our well-being and about how this has been treated during the history of urban planning.
The direct influence between how cities were conceived and the well-being of their citizens is not a contemporary concern. Already in Ancient Greece, Hippodamus of Miletus (498 – 408 BC), considered the “father” of urban planning, devised what would later be called hypodamic plan, which conceived cities in an orderly and efficient grid. The idea was to provide the urban center with greater viability that would favor the flow of inhabitants and the transportation of goods.
One of the setbacks of this type of urban planning is that, as the streets are made up of straight lines, trips are longer. In any case, in the 19th century this type of approach was recovered in expansions such as Barcelona, whose Cerdà Plan (named after its architect, Ildefons Cerdà) returned to the hypodamian grid and its respective islands of houses.
Although it has been more than 10,000 years since humans moved to urban centers and currently (according to the United Nations), more than 54% of the world’s population lives in cities with more than 300,000 inhabitants, our genetic design It still makes us prone to needing nature, the daily context of our most distant ancestors. It is not strange that people take advantage of holidays and vacations to go to the mountains or the sea, or to retire to a small town anchored in a rural landscape and away from the noise of the city.
We do it because we carry this craving in our genetic code. Studies have shown that Natural sounds, such as birds singing or the rustling of the wind in the leaves, help combat stress and, therefore, improve our physical and mental state. It is not surprising, therefore, that in the current planning of cities the natural element is taken into account to provide its inhabitants with greater well-being.
Not only the approach of the centers to the coastal area is an example of this (the “blue health” we were talking about), but also the introduction of parks where citizens can feel for a few moments in the middle of a forest or a lake. Some cities, such as Vitoria-Gasteiz in Spain or Berlin in Germany, take green cores into account and include them in their urban layout as an essential element.
Industrial overcrowding
Excess population in urban centers is nothing new; Already in ancient Rome and during the Middle Ages there were problems with population density and the ability of cities to absorb all inhabitants. In fact, Rome was one of the unhealthiest cities of antiquity; especially, its most miserable neighborhoods, located in Trastevere, where people were crowded into the insulae, housing blocks precursors of our apartment blocks, with hardly any access to water or minimal hygienic maintenance.
Times of population growth are, of course, more prone to urban unhealthiness. During the first centuries of the Middle Ages, European demographics fell, so space within cities was sufficient, even with the problems derived from the existence of too many abandoned areas. In these “empty” cities, orchards and green spaces proliferated, connecting inhabitants with nature. As the population grew, the problem of urban overcrowding increased, which had its peak during the Industrial Revolution at the end of the 18th century.
The guarantee of work offered by the new factories produced a massive migration to the cities and their surroundings. Since there was no prior planning, many newcomers settled where they could and gave rise to really depressed areas where sanitation was poor. On the other hand, the medieval walls were already useless and constrained the population in the urban center, so, throughout the 19th century, many cities decided to tear them down. With this, however, a very important historical and cultural testimony was eliminated.
Although during the enlightened 18th century many European cities began a reform of their urban layout (London and Paris, among many others), growing industrialization paralyzed these improvements and turned these cities into places of overcrowding, poverty and disease. In many places, barracks began to proliferate in the surrounding areas, which of course did not have the slightest hygienic conditions.
The 20th century and rationalist architecture
The new rationalist models of the early 20th century tried to end unhealthy conditions in cities. In Barcelona, for example (where barracks had taken great roots), the GATCPAC (Group of Catalan Architects and Technicians for the Progress of Contemporary Architecture) attempted to modernize the city’s urban planning through the construction of buildings for the proletariat that were both economical and healthy
In line with the ideas of the German Bauhaus, the GATCPAC was aware of the importance of housing and the environment for the mental and physical health of its inhabitants, so its projects were designed based, above all, on two things: first, the healthiness of the air and water (with adequate ventilation of the interiors, access to terraces and running water) and, second, leisure and socialization.
Thus, buildings such as Casa Bloc (located in the Sant Andreu de Palomar neighborhood, Barcelona) contained access galleries to the various homes, with which Contact between neighbors was encouraged, as well as public access gardens inside the block
The idea of interior gardens (that much-desired contact with nature) was already present in the Barcelona expansion plan of the mid-19th century (the aforementioned Pla Cerdà). With this, the aim was to provide the inhabitants with a space for leisure and relaxation that would positively impact their health. Unfortunately, this planning was only partially carried out.
Conclusions
Statistics, studies and history demonstrate the will of human beings to live in urban centers in adequate conditions. Contact with nature has always been present; Already in the Sumerian poem Gilgamesh, dated from the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, the degeneration of human beings who lived in cities was highlighted. The urban habitat, as the core of daily life, has therefore always pursued a series of ideals to improve the existence of its citizens.
The environment has an important impact on our psyche and our body. It is not only about the health of the water and air, but also about removing stress and providing the mind with well-being that makes life easier. Urban planning has a lot to do with this, as has been proven time and time again, which is why current planning tends to assess the impact that the urban fabric has on the mental well-being of the person and act accordingly.
Not all of these modern provisions are beneficial, of course. Some have their pros and cons. In some new urban areas, the focus on not over-densifying has produced exactly the opposite: practically unpopulated areas with a lot of space between buildings that, as a consequence, lack social cohesion, as they become dormitory cities. The best thing would be, as always, to find the middle point in which non-massification and correct socialization go hand in hand.
