Transformative landscapes: Designing the healthy city

Design and health experts from around Australia and the world will explore the role of landscape architecture, urban design and planning in making healthful urban environments.

Many of the most sophisticated hospitals in Australia now feature therapeutic landscapes, included for the proven benefits green spaces bring to patient treatment and recovery. Conversely, health scientists have found direct connections between poor urban amenity and planning, and poor health, with evidence growing that many of our cities qualify as everything from “obesogenic” – as encouraging unhealthy levels of weight gain – to “depressogenic” – as leading to poor mental health.

As Australia’s population ages, and more and more of its youngest people find themselves suffering from health issues once the unhappy preserve of the middle aged and elderly, the way we design and plan our cities, parks and places will have profound effects on our mental and physical well-being.

The symposium line-up includes:

  • Lily Jencks of UK-based practice, Lily Jencks Studio. The firm designed the landscapes and gardens of several of the Maggies Centres, a network of centres in the UK and Hong Kong, which aim to help those affected by cancer;
  • Paul Torzillo, a founding director of Healthabitat, a not-for-profit company that aims to improve the health of people living in poverty throughout the world by facilitating improvements to housing and living environments;
  • Claire Martin, associate director of Oculus, the landscape architects for the recently redeveloped Bendigo Hospital with architects Bates Smart and Silver Thomas Hanley; and
  • Billie Giles-Corti, distinguished professor at RMIT University and director of the Healthy Liveable Cities Research Group at RMIT’s Centre for Urban Research.

For more information on the symposium and to purchase tickets, go here.

Event details
Date
Thursday, 19 Mar 2020 Past event
Location
National Gallery of Victoria
Melbourne,  Vic,  Australia
Map
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