The restrictions faced by city residents around the world during the COVID-19 pandemic has brought home just how much urban design can affect our mental health and created an imperative to seize this opportunity. Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health andWellbeing(2021), co-authored by Jenny Roe and Layla McCay, marks a significant development in the emerging field of urban design for mental health and provides a much-needed practical guide for policymakers and practitioners in the Covid-19 recovery period.
This roundtable discussion, moderated by Jenny Roe, brings together experts in restorative environments to address this new framework’s relevance and its application in light of increased mental health problems arising from the Covid-19 pandemic, the advancing climate crisis and health inequity.
The roundtable will open with a short introduction to the restorative cities framework, followed by a brief overview from each panelists on how their own research is contributing to Restorative Cities agenda, followed by an exchange of views on the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead.
This roundtable is relevant to all design and urban planning disciplines, healthcare researchers, policymakers, think-tanks, environmental advocates, scholars, researchers, and students
Panelists+ Moderator:
Deepti Adlakhi, Associate Professor, Department of Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning,NC State University
Aaron Hipp, Associate Professor of Community Health and Sustainability,NC State University
Jenny Roe, Mary Irene DeShong Professor and Director of the Center for Design& Health, UVA School of Architecture
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