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Roughly 25 people each year jump to their deaths from San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, which prompted city leaders to authorize a plan to erect a kind of suicide-prevention stainless steel cable netting twenty feet below the bridge's deck. The netting, which is painted gray to blend in with... View full entry
Just nine months after a catastrophic earthquake hit Haiti in 2010, killing hundreds of thousands of people, a cholera epidemic broke out. While it became clear shortly after that the epidemic began with U.N. peacekeepers, who had been active in Haiti since 2004 and brought the disease from Nepal... View full entry
Nearly 90% of the 447 respondents said they had had to work through the night at some point. Almost one-third said they have to do it regularly. Two-thirds of undergraduates said their debt at the end of their course would be £30,000 or above. Despite that, almost a third said they had been asked to work in practice for free...
[One student respondent] said: “A culture of suffering for your art is promoted within education.”
— The Guardian
More on Archinect:When the pressure is on, dedicated architecture students show how to power nap like a proArchitects constitute the fifth most likely profession to commit suicideEpisode 6 of Archinect Sessions, "Money Changes Everything", is out now! View full entry
[James] Leadbitter called it “a playful and exciting space for redesigning madness, a utopian attempt at what a mental health hospital could be like.”
Each structure...is an abstract interpretation of the feedback from the workshops, designed to offer varying levels “of privacy and intimacy ranging from total isolation to complete togetherness.”
“This is only a small glimpse of a project that has huge potential to influence the way we think about the design of mental health care environments,”
— Slate
More than 300 patients, architects, and psychiatrists pitched their ideas on how they would redesign the psychiatric ward for “Madlove: A Designer Asylum”, a collaborative project conceived by artist and activist James Leadbitter, who has suffered from mental illness and has stayed at several... View full entry
Less depressing than construction, not nearly as happy-making as arts, design, entertainment, sports and media: according to the CDC, architects are the fifth most likely to commit suicide in comparison with members of other professions, especially if you're a male architect (data for female... View full entry
In a new paper, economists and public health researchers have found that not even working indoors in an office can protect people from the deleterious impacts of polluted air and particularly fine particulate pollution — defined as tiny particles that can travel deep into our lungs and even get into the bloodstream and eventually reach the central nervous system. — the Washington Post
Cities around the world are choking from polluted skies. Find out more:Is biking good for you even if the air is heavily polluted?These are the most-polluted cities in the USDelhi’s air pollution is worse than Beijing's. A new app measures the air quality in real timeBillions exposed to... View full entry
“I believe it’s important for all ages to interact on a day to day basis. It...hopefully removes the labelling of people as ‘elderly’ or ‘past it’ and the self-fulfilling behaviours that are often generated by this.”
“Cities need cross-generational activities...People living alone of whatever age can become isolated, lonely and then mental health problems can develop.”
“Teach young people that we are not going to move over, nor do we have to.”
— The Guardian
How do you define an age-friendly city? Share in the comment section below.More on Archinect:Nation's first combined housing complex for LGBT youth and seniors coming to HollywoodLoneliness is on the rise throughout the world's citiesMidwest developer planning shared residence for seniors and... View full entry
Many current architecture students are excited about the removal of styrene mainly because of the various health hazards...[However,] others are worried that it will negatively impact their work and productivity. Sophomore Sam Landay explained that it’s not uncommon for architecture students to put their projects before their health.
Even outspoken opponents of styrene admit the necessity of utilizing the material.
— Student Life, Washington University in St. Louis
More on Archinect:When the pressure is on, dedicated architecture students show how to power nap like a proOne night's bad sleep equivalent to six months on a high-fat diet, new study findsAnother study warns that 3D-printers pose potential health risks for users View full entry
Boring architecture may take an emotional toll on the people forced to live in and around it.
A growing body of research in cognitive science illuminates the physical and mental toll bland cityscapes exact on residents. Generally, these researchers argue that humans are healthier when they live among variety — a cacophony of bars, bodegas, and independent shops — or work in well-designed, unique spaces, rather than unattractive, generic ones.
— nymag.com
Related stories in the Archinect news:Putting entire cities on the psychiatrist's couchGetting Neural: Van Alen hosts "How Does the Brain Respond to the City?"The Quest to Measure the Brain's Response to Urban Design View full entry
This post is brought to you by Boston Architectural College. The Master of Design Studies in Design for Human Health (MDS-DHH) is the first low residency—primarily online—master’s program dedicated to health and wellbeing within the built environment. This program is available at the Boston... View full entry
This is the urban park of today. Unlike the neatly drawn public spaces of an earlier age, these parks are reclaimed from the discarded parcels of our cities: Stranded patches of woods, abandoned military bases and airports, storm-water systems, rail lines and bridges, places where scraps of land are pieced together like quilts or strung together like beads.
The experimentation is global.
— National Geographic
Related stories in the Archinect news:A critical look at Downtown L.A.'s ambitious plans for two new public parksWhat if: Perkins Eastman's "Green Line" proposal turns Broadway into a 40-block park in the heart of ManhattanAs Garden Bridge procurement process is headed for review, London group... View full entry
Amid the controversy that perpetually surrounds Planned Parenthood, it's easy to forget that the nonprofit organization is, first and foremost, a health care provider. It is the largest provider of sex education in the United States. Every year, 2.5 million people—men and women—visit its health centers for care and information. It administers life-saving cancer-screening tests and offers contraception. In some states, it's the only abortion provider... — FastCo Design
"In 2014, Planned Parenthood embarked on an ambitious collaboration with the global design consultancy Ideo to hatch plans that would help the nonprofit do what it does best: care for patients."For more design responses to public health challenges, check out these links:Turning the “ugliest... View full entry
This got us thinking about what it takes to build an ideal town: should pubs be on every residential corner or on the high street? How many trendy coffee shops are too many? Are libraries still a thing? We didn't have the answers to any of those questions, so we spoke to Matt Richards – a planner at property consultancy Bidwells – to find out what makes the perfect town. — VICE
Related stories in the Archinect news:Turning the “ugliest building in Liverpool” into an exemplar of public healthUrbanism as a public health issue: Oklahoma City's battle with obesityJan Gehl's perspective on making "a good urban habitat for homo sapiens"How urban designers can better... View full entry
work has finally started on an ambitious £335m redevelopment of Merseyside’s largest hospital. And the ambition is not simply to tackle a building that has outstayed its usefulness; it is to make the whole city healthier and wealthier too. [...]
In place of the current “American suburban” model of a huge building and surrounding parking, it will return to a “European” model of a cluster of buildings with public spaces in between them [...]
“The centre will feel like a public square.
— theguardian.com
More renovations from the healthcare sector:Perkins+Will selected to design Northwestern University Research Building on old Prentice siteSick people in Scandinavia can check into these "patient hotels" as hospital alternativesConstruction kicks off for Steven Holl-designed Maggie's Centre Barts... View full entry
So 3D printing didn’t even have much of a chance before the railing began regarding fumes and toxicity and in general, the question of how sick we might be getting while the filament takes its time melting nearby...[A recent University of Texas at Austin] report seems to offer up fairly common sense information, although they do state that more studies should be done regarding exposure to fumes and potential carcinogens, and should be weighed against usage patterns while 3D printing. — 3dprint.com
This health concern isn't brand new, but it's surely something that deserves further research.More on Archinect:3D printing will recreate destroyed Palmyra archMIT presents 3D printer that can print 10 materials simultaneously without breaking the bankESA proposes a village on the moonAmsterdam... View full entry