The Happy Design Toolkit is a book on how good architecture can help mental health in the community. Simple factors like lighting, comfort and access to nature and social interaction, can alll impact how we feel. The book features 100 hand-drawn illustrations (including roof gardens). And shows how ‘bumping into each other’ architecture can cure social isolation.
Use no-dig gardening to protect wildlife. Use fruit protection bags (over netting, which can trap birds and wildlife). Learn how to create gardens safe for pets (use humane slug/snail deterrents). Avoid facing indoor foliage to outdoor gardens, to help stop birds flying into windows.
Precision Community Health is a wonderful book that every town council and GP could read. When Bechara Choucair was a young doctor, he learned that treating a patient for hypothermia did little good, if she has to spend the next night in the freezing cold. As health commissioner of Chicago, he was determined to help the city’s most vulnerable populations. His approach led to lower rates of smoking, teen pregnancy and breast cancer. Health is about decent housing, jobs, parks, food and social support.
Happy City unlocks the secrets of living well in cities, and it’s not to do with how much you earn or what the climate is. He travels from Atlanta to Bogotá to Vancouver) to explore innovations that are transforming people’s lives. Meet the Colombian mayor who turned the world’s most dangerous roads into an urban cycling haven, a Danish architect who created the world’s most walking-friendly city and New York transport commissioner who turned Times Square into a pedestrian paradise.
Urban Playground shows how town planners can move from car-dominated, noisy and polluted communities, – to create ones that are welcoming and walkable, that are safe for children to walk and play. The author leads a global campaign for more child-friendly streets, towns and cities, and builds the academic case for reconnecting children with nature.
