Pedagogical Intent of Design of Healthy Environments

I am developing a new seminar, Design of Healthy Environments, which will address the following goals at the intersection of Architecture, Urban Planning, and Health.

Critically examine the connections between the public health, urban planning and architecture disciplines and their impact on the built environment and society from historical and contemporary perspectives.

Create a framework for understanding the inter-relationships of the natural and built environments and the impact on human and ecological health.

Examine concepts of vulnerable populations and health disparities in society as the context for designing interventions in the built environment.

Introduce the Health Impact Assessment (HIA) as a research methodology and design assessment tool.

Explore case studies of Public Space and Housing using a performance based metric approach to assess and compare the health and environmental impact of projects at multiple scales ranging from the urban to the individual building environment.

Practicum: develop a design project or strategic plan that addresses an issue in the built environment with a health impact including a plan for assessing the outcome.

Explore the concept of social capital and contemporary developments in social engagement within the design professions.

The immediate challenge is to develop the criteria for performance based design that can be applied to urban and architectural design with a health agenda. I am excited to be working on a list of projects that can be developed ahead of the class that can be explored and developed in the design lab component of the course.