QUALITY OF LIFE
ARCHITECTS AS HEALERS BUILDINGS AS MEDICINE BY ANGELA MAZZI AND MEGAN MAZZOCCO
As future-proofing cities becomes critical to securing quality of life amid density, grassroots groups and policymakers have the potential to bring vitality, health, and resilience to communities in urban areas.
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here are personal and external factors that can be detrimental to health. Studies show that when the personal impacts (such as social connection, safety, education, financial stability, diet, housing stability, and transportation) are combined with external impacts (such as the effects of light and noise pollution, traffic, air and water quality, and the amount of green space), the body produces very real biological responses that impact everything from how we age, epigenetics, inflammation, metabolics, gut microbiome, and gene expression. These factors are precursors to many health problems and diseases. To understand why that impact occurs, think of a video game like Super Mario Bros. You navigate the world with a “resource bank.” If you have a lot of resources and you encounter a threat, it doesn’t really impact you. On the other hand, if you don’t have resources (back to those social factors), you will be severely impacted. This is why one person can be more resilient than another in the same situation. The good news is that we can leverage the built environment to embed those resources, building resiliency for the people that live in your cities. Blue Urbanism Why do we want to resource our citizens for resilience? We want to create quality of life and longevity, which together equal a healthspan. Rather than lifespan, a healthspan is living a long, independent, high-quality life. This is happening around the world in places called Blue Zones. What if we could reimagine and
74 | Smart City Miami
create a Blue Zone in your city? According to the WHO, air and noise pollution are the number one and two causes of death worldwide. Noise pollution impacts sleep habits, which is problematic because sleep is the top predictor of physical and mental health. Light pollution is also a nuisance to sleep, and several studies have shown that continued exposure to artificial light increases the risk for prostate and breast cancers. Flicker is also a health disruptor to highly sensitive people and can trigger those with seizure disorders. The design of the built environment can exacerbate these kinds of public health epidemics, but it can also work to resolve them. For example, smart footprints like green walls can mitigate air and noise pollution
Active Design On Rue Montorgueil in Paris, we see an example of a thriving pedestrian-active streetscape.
simultaneously. Other strategies involve softening semipermeable boundaries around buildings with greenery, benches, and walking paths, making for a more desirable and pleasant pedestrian experience. Active Design A lot of the things we talk about in our club are ways we can activate health by creating pedestrian-friendly spaces that encourage people to socialize in a way that’s normal and natural, thus expanding a person’s support network for more of a safety net. We can see the difference between big-box shopping centers and a more pedestrianactive streetscape. A shopping center is destination-based and encourages car culture, which is sedentary, polluting the air,
