Winter 2020/21 studio at the Institute for Landscape Planning and Ecology, the University of Stuttgart, named Urban Green and Public Health, brought us — Kavya, Linda and Yasodhara — together in looking at off-beat approaches to improving residents’ health in cities. We chose Bengaluru, a city in India, as our focal area for our studio project, where we were tasked with exploring greening strategies in cities that could enhance public health.
The exponential growth and changing landscape of Bengaluru poses several challenges for urban planning, many of which take a toll on public health. Inequitable distribution of greenspaces proves to be a challenge for many residents who are often deprived of access to vast open spaces. Our view is that the challenges of limited space availability in cities could be tackled with small, simple interventions in areas that are either overlooked or used for other purposes. This led to the idea of transforming unconventional and underutilised spaces in a neighbourhood into active green spaces.
Our investigation for the studio project taught us how people can make the best use of limited resources to improve public health. The issue of density and limited space availability in rapidly growing cities calls for out-of-the-ordinary approaches to placemaking, especially regarding green spaces. To realise this potential, we must create awareness about the capacity neighbourhoods hold.
Here is the link to the blog article: https://phalliance.medium.com/biophilic-urban-acupuncture-for-human-health-c4c2109defe7