Monday, February 14, 2022

Designing a psychologically healthy outdoor environment

 The outdoor environment has an essential role in promoting a psychologically healthy lifestyle.

Designing and executing outdoor spaces that promote an active lifestyle, inclusivity, aesthetics & sustainability is one of our primary duties as architects and designers.

Every design target of these probably requires an entire course. For some quick tips:

Inclusivity: Ensuring that the design accommodates all ages, genders, and abilities, especially considering the requirements of people with special needs (Beautifully called in UAE people of determination). 

Active lifestyle & aesthetics: The design should promote activities like cycling, jogging, and exercising towards walkability & bikeability of cities, where cities should be designed for humans, not cars. The designers should develop their skills to design aesthetically, incorporating natural elements like plants, water features, etc., with other design elements.

Sustainability: Simply applying the “Reduce-Reuse-Recycle” concept. Not just in encouraging the users of the space to apply it. But to consider it in every single aspect of the design, specifically in the used material. There are tons of recycled outdoor materials which could be specified and incorporated into the designs.

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