Rooftop Rejuvenation: The use of Public Spaces in Hospitals

There's something about hospitals that emit an atmosphere of sterility, where everything from their white walls to the squeaky clean tiles can smother the soul. The Scientific American spells out what we all know to be true: hospitals are stressful places. Given that the brain is the central system that signals when to produce antigens to help the body heal, it is in the patient's best interest to have their brain optimised when recovering. 

Enter Mother Nature in the bleak horizon of antiseptic white walls, particularly that of Darul Ehsan Medical Center in Malaysia. 

On the second floor of this hospital, one will see an open rooftop courtyard with pebbled floors, furniture that respects the tropical culture of this country, and lush greenery that gives patients a break from the indoor world of medicine. This space, although not necessarily the creme de la creme of hospital public spaces, is comfortable and invigorating. 

Malaysia's hot climate requires some technique of cooling an area down, and what other way to best do this outdoors other than incorporating a water feature? A+ for the aesthetic.

The furniture complements the overall aesthetic; wooden chairs incorporate for a warmer feel to the space, and blue umbrellas revitalise the space with some colour, while providing much needed shade in their entirely open space. The tilework could (and perhaps should) have been replaced with grass.

It gives the patients a breather [pun intended] from the mechanical feel inside this hospital, as it allows them to interact with a wider demographic of patients. The elderly can interact with infants, with people outside of their circle of curers, people who don't pity them, but just want to know them. Patient's relatives can relax here. In the past, mother/baby expositions have been held here, and so we can see that this space facilitates community development, arguably achieving social sustainability. Lounges and cheap malaysian cuisine borders this area and stimulates some circulation of leisure money, a secondary form of income for the hospital that also creates a few jobs outside of the medical field here. 

Unfortunately, what this space particularly fails at is the environmental pillar of sustainability. Though there was planty (2nd pun) of opportunity to integrate a greener environment to the space, such as a grassy floor with a stone path that would have benefited the hospital during monsoon season (via stormwater management), they instead chose to use an impervious pebbly surface that is particularly harsh to patients who are vulnerable and can fall. Although the potted plants are diverse, there are but a few of them, and they lack cohesive design - the vegetation used is so random, that it weakens the general motif to this public space and fails to give this space its character. This is a shame, for Malaysia usually uses every design opportunity it has to integrate vegetation...even if it is sometimes at an expense to the user's convenience (bad pedestrian paths! But that's for another post).

Integrating extensive rooftop garden techniques to this space might be the solution to making it more sustainable; it is a shame that this hospital chose not to integrate more greenery into this space, especially given that nature helps heal. The constraints it most likely faced was the cost of installing and maintaining these plants. Though considering that nature helps patients heal faster...is this really a cost in the long run?

Tabinda Shah

Miami's Model of Increasing Participation in Public Space Enhancement

As a former Miami resident, I used to complain on a daily basis about the limited public spaces throughout the city. Most spaces either catered to consumptive opportunities, like bar patios, malls, and theaters, or to recreational purposes only, like basketball and tennis courts, or pools, but simple hang out spots that were also aesthetically pleasing or plain cool (besides our beach) were rare.

In the last five years, the city has experienced a rapid turn around and we can partially thank the Miami Foundation for that. The foundation, which offers a multitude of grant programs, has established a Public Spaces Challenge to invite programming and design ideas from local citizens on how to revitalize public space in the city and increase genuine participation in planning efforts. Following its infamous area code ("305"), the competition offers a total of $305,000 yearly and selects a number of projects, ranging from events and ongoing programs to physical installations.

The platform itself is innovative. On the design competition's web page, members of the public can pin their concepts on a map of the city to specify its location and add a small blurb (along with images and detailed descriptions) of how this idea might improve the city. Comments are allowed as well to help facilitate conversation around the idea during the selection process and encourage collaboration among diverse members of the public.

Some innovative ideas from this year's challenge:

• Containers in Community/ Brickell Exercise Box: this neighborhood scale installation takes old materials to create 'mini parks' on parking spots. It borrow ideas from urbanism concepts such as shipping container construction and parklets, but the innovative approach lies in its desire to draw Miamians outside to exercise and continue their traditional indoor gymming habits. The project is recreational in nature but solves a number of urbanism issues including public health, slow streets, and reuse of building materials from the nearby port.

• Roots Collective Black Marketplace: this project is self-proclaimed to promote small business development in Little Haiti, a predominantly black working class neighborhood in North Miami, through a monthly meeting that encourages networking through ideas sharing to bridge the equity gap and empower the local community across cultural boundaries. The concept tackles a fundamental issue related to immobility and missed economic opportunity of residents in a low-income black community. In addition, local art, dance, and music are leveraged to preserve unity despite rapid redevelopment in the surrounding area. 

Participants pin their ideas to the map. Image Source: OurMiami Miami Public Spaces Challenge 

Visit the Miami Foundation Public Spaces Challenge website here 

Designing Raincouver

I first visited Vancouver in June, and I was impressed by its aliveness. Yoga classes dotted the park. Smiling women, sporting the highest quality fibre exercise clothing, jaunted freely with their dogs along the freshly painted walking path. The mountains stood majestically in the backdrop. Not a single cloud hovered in the sky. This place was perfect. Indeed, it would make for a suitable place for my college experience.

Late November. 4 PM. Dark already and pouring out. Maybe it's drizzling. Doesn't matter. At least I'm sitting in a coffee shop, sipping my London Fog and looking out the window to Main Street. It's cozy, yes, but not a single soul wanders about the sidewalks. A few drifting umbrella here and there. I don't see very many faces though. 

Vancouver has two personalities. The city has wonderful weather for four months, while it rains for the rest. The city can boast innumerable cafes and restaurants, and some good libraries, but year-round public spaces (whether indoors or out) for which consumption or membership is not required are seriously lacking. This is an issue given that it rains, or drizzles, a majority of the year. This is what drew me (on a sunny day) to attend the Museum of Vancouver's workshop and discussion known as Design Sundays hosted by Design Nerds and the Vancouver Public Spaces Network "Make it Rain: Creating Solutions for Rain-friendly City Spaces". 

We discussed a number of design interventions for separate locations in the city: Cambie/ Broadway, Dunsmuir/Granville in Vancouver's CBD, Olympic Village using a live stream to view all angles and aspects of the areas of focus. For these we saw improvement potential in the size of awnings as well as overall cohesiveness in the awning network, so there are fewer gaps. Other ideas included retractable solutions, given Vancouver' temperamental weather patterns. Awnings and coverings that can easily be removed or set up depending on weather changes.

In addition, ways to draw people to use a public space despite the rain included more outdoor seating, benches that revolve their surface to expose a dry side. Among the more creative solutions were coverings that people can easily expand and customize in size for a variety of uses, patios, and cabana-like structures. Another valuable concept building off existing umbrella share programs was an umbrella- zipline for otherwise unprotected crosswalks  a sort of grab-and-go . As attention always must be paid to green features (if we are to uphold the "Greenest City" credo), some designs also considered sustainable stormwater management practices. For instance, using rain gardens to collect water from awnings and roofs, or small ponds or streams within sidewalk crevices to capture water that would otherwise evaporate from an impermeable surface or flow into a drainage system.

Play was another important aspect brought into the discussion by involved planners. These interventions can draw people, especially children, to appreciate the rain by inviting a playful aspect. For example, in many cities, little ponds and streams are used for foot baths and fountains, playing with toy boats, or jumping in 'puddles' . The concept is widely adopted in Japan and Germany. Another idea consisted of a special grade of paint that reveals itself only when exposed to water. What happens when children mingle in a space-- their parents follow, and voila, a vibrant public space is born.

Rain gardens are one way to optimize rainfall in Vancouver by alleviating pressure
on the storm water drainage system while enhancing greenery and offering aesthetic appeal.
Native plants ought to be planted. Image Source: Google Maps (Ontario/ Broadway) 

Vancouver's current rain protection system consists of isolated glass awnings covering small sections of the sidewalk. The awning network is neither complete across streets in the city, but awnings are offset minimally. Image Source: Google Maps (Dunsmuir/ Granville, Downtown Vancouver)

Planning with an Intersectional Lens: Women-friendly City Design

When we think "city planning" and "urban design", we don't always think of those who are made invisible in the process. Jane Jacobs, out of all the well- known 20th century contributors to contemporary urban theory, drew closest to understanding gender mainstreaming in cities. She conceived a number of simple solutions to tackle the issue of women's safety and wellbeing, promoting a particular kind of mixed use community with design aspects catered toward community cohesion. Nonetheless, ask any working mother, female student, night shift sex worker how the configuration of the urban landscape in many cities affects their mobility, feelings of safety, and economic opportunity, and a number of concerns will arise. With little exception, our urban landscape neglects the needs of women by missing a number of considerations. Although innumerable cases could be listed, I will explore a few such scenarios:

1. Mothers working at night 

Women, especially single mothers, who work at night have few support options to take care of children. In some professions, such as nursing, women often must take night shifts for the advancement of their careers. Other times, women must work at restaurants, bars, and drive-thrus to earn sufficient wages to support themselves and their children. However, the lack of 24/7 childcare in urban areas signals that this need has not yet been raised by institutions.

2. Young women at college campuses 

Young women have at some point felt the fear of walking on their campuses at night. Sexual assault happens often, and college campuses, unfortunately, are no safe haven. Women walking back to their car at night from evening classes may have to cross the vast parking lot to reach their car. Parking lots are not always well lit and a long walk through an isolated area may induce feelings of fear. A simple solution could be to designate parking spots closer to campus buildings in well-lit areas for those with classes at night, and particularly for women.

3. Sex workers 

These individuals experience a number of vulnerabilities, and the trip home at night is often dreaded. However, exploitation can also occur during work hours. In these cases, it is important to draft up solutions so that protect women from workplace harassment. One barrier to action is the relationship between sex workers and law enforcement, as the lack of trust between the two prevents women's safety from being addressed. Labor laws might need to be altered to protect women in this line of work from harassment and exploitation, etc.

4. Women unaccompanied in the city 

At night, independence can become a problem. Often women are warned not to walk alone at night; nonetheless, they may want or need to conduct their activities on their own. Fear about safety in the city poses a severe restriction to women's mobility. Changes can be made to transit, by making it more frequent at night and extending its hours, while also improving signage to improve transit accessibility. Additionally, women-only taxi service or women-only train cars at night may reduce cases of harassment and increase feelings of security. Signs in transit targeted to all riders should raise awareness of issues toward women's safety and promote a culture of communal surveillance and protection. Also, lighting, neighborhood maps, building frontages with windows facing toward the sidewalk, and mixed use neighborhoods with services close to homes lie among the spectrum of interventions that can be made.

5. Women balancing home life and work life 

Balancing domestic duties such as taking care of children and earning wages can present a daunting task for women. There have been attempts, such as the Cuban Family Code, at creating equal division of labor in the household between partners so that women are not burdened. Nonetheless, enforcement has proven difficult.  Mixed use communities engender a supportive structure such as through close by services such as child care, grocery stores, and medical facilities, while also reducing the need to commute long ways to work by placing good jobs close to homes, and also enabling community surveillance so that women feel safe in both public and private spheres.

It is clear that gender-friendly cities will require cross-scalar solutions. Some, such as labor laws, can be made at the higher rungs by policymakers, while others can be dealt with at a DIY level from community advocates or through collaboration with planners and designers.

Read more on this topic: http://www.citylab.com/commute/2013/09/how-design-city-women/6739/

A Vancouver-based organization, Women Transforming Cities,
holds monthly cafe-style dialogues to draft solutions
for a report for the post-2015 UN Habitat- New Urban Agenda

The Role of Happiness and Social Sustainability in Improving Campus Planning

A college campus ought to accommodate the needs of students; after all, they are the reason for the institutions in the first place. Nonetheless, there are instances in which planning rejects the needs of many students. A student-run dialogue session called Lenses of Sustainability at my campus brought together university students to share their opinions on social sustainability, especially with regards to how our happiness shapes how our environment and vice versa. This reminded me of the role of participatory methods in improved campus planning. Students shared their opinions of how the social dimensions in their university experience were often neglected, and thus, left them feeling less fulfilled. This could be attributed to general characteristics of university life, which create stress for college students. Often, these are unpreventable aspects of large university life. However, a lot of the time, underlying students happiness was the configuration of campus built environment, especially with regards to affordable housing, public space, and social services. This can affect the wellbeing of students.

Students mentioned coziness as a contributor to their happiness. Thus, how public spaces and buildings are designed can reinforce this. Another was nature and the related recreational opportunities-- how can a campus retain enough green space? If we are to build more compactly, how can we ensure that nature is still accessible to promote social wellbeing? Another significant issue was being a part of a community. This is challenging in a large school, but it is an aspect that can be improved through improving accessibility to student housing, both permanent and temporary (even a student hostel).  Students who must commute for one or two hours each day to and from campus, not only feel separated from campus life, but when they are expected to juggle the various responsibilities of being a student and they lose much of their time commuting each day, it is unavoidable that they will be stressed. Affordable housing seemed to be the most significant strategy for students' quality of life to be improved. It also says a lot for a campus very much focused on environmental but not social sustainability-- these two are deeply intertwined. 

A Participatory Planning Mini-Experiment: Students Express Concerns in Planning Negotiations through an Urban Diagnosis Walk

Participatory planning has become an emerging characteristic of contemporary planning best practices. Having evolved since the 1970s, as concern arose of the dangers of top-down planning, it consists of a variety of practical tools planning agencies can use in their scoping process. Particularly useful in uncovering 'insurgent planning histories' (Sandercock, 1998), an example organization that employs such tools is Collectiu Punt 6, an action based in Barcelona, engaging women architects, planners, and activists. Their goal is game-changing for design-related gender discrimination: involve women in the planning process to transform cities to be safer and catered more toward their needs. As with all participatory planning tools, limitations exists, as social structures can impose arbitrary restrictions via 'tokenism' so that ideas are not actualized (Arnstein, 1969). In an undergraduate contemporary planning issues course at my university, we tried out one of these planning tools ourselves to see what we could gain from the experience.

As part of this collaborative planning mini-experiment, we were provided a map of the urban diagnosis walk. For this experience, we would do a round in a select area of our campus and make observations and take photographs as we pleased. The select area of the campus is a rapidly transforming site, with modern, high-rise housing construction being built to accommodate a rising population of mostly international students, as well as other efforts to include more mixed-use development and some public spaces. We were given a list of guiding questions to help facilitate concerning issues of spatial visibility (i.e., components and vegetation), social visuality (i.e., street activity), information (i.e., signage), and "prohibited" spaces (i.e., use and appropriation).

Students insights demonstrated that this tool ought to be used more in the planning process to hear a diverse range of perspectives. For example, some students pointed to the inherent inequities in building  housing using expensive steel-frame construction catered to a small percentage of the population who could afford it. The result is that many local students commute for more than an hour to campus each day. Others wondered about the inadequate signage given the extent of building construction sites. Some asked questions about the frequency of dead zones on the campus; these are places that have potential but due to walls without actual frontage and windows, they become mere passage ways. Another critical observation was whether small bus transit through this area was adequate and also accessible to other needs (i.e., parents with strollers) and how sanitized some parts of the campus were, inhibiting any form of creativity. Cohesive visions for planning for the future demand innovative tools that allow different perspectives to be heard. In this case, students will be the primary users of a space, so why not involve them more? Participatory planning using the urban diagnosis walk could be one such tool at very low cost.

Sources:

Arnstein, Sherry. 1969. "A ladder of citizen participation", American Institute of Planners, 35:4, 216- 224

Sanderock, Leonie (Ed). 1998. "Introduction", in Making The Invisible Visible: A Multicultural Planning History. Berkeley: University of California Press.

Urban Asia: Secrets and Stereotypes Revealed! (Part 2)

Often admired from abroad as an ideal school lunch program and nutrition education model for other countries around the world, Japanese "Shokuiku" has its flaws, too. Perhaps it is difficult to tell as Japan, when compared to other developed countries, has a much lower obesity rate and one of the highest longevity rates in the world. And speaking with bias as an admirer of Japan myself, Japanese culture typically aims at any projects it conducts right. However, as is the case here, sometimes striving for perfection while running a national program can lead to top-down policy. That in itself is a limitation.

Based on researching current trends and issues in Japan's food self-sufficiency, food safety, nutrition, and changing consumption patterns during a Comprehensive International Education Program on Sustainable Agriculture in Asia, Japan's youth are on a path expected with the commercialisation of the food system characterised by greater control of the food retail sector. Much like its North American and European counterparts, Japan's youth are collecting food miles with their changing diets, by consuming more store-bought, pre-packaged and processed foods shipped from China, Brazil, and Southeast Asian countries with few if any local ingredients. It is clear what this could mean for Japan's highly cherished "Washoku" cuisine, which recently received World Heritage recognition.

In an effort to teach Japanese youth better food habits for cultural preservation and societal health outcomes, policymakers developing Shokuiku have misunderstood a fundamental aspect of food choice in our modern society by calling for more responsibility among individuals as well as a return to traditional family values of eating dinner as a family.

While Shokuiku might have specified goals that many progressive advocates of food security, food self-sufficiency, localism and holistic nutritional education might agree with, its approaches are somewhat misguided. For instance, it does not consider that individual responsibility is not entirely equitable, as many people make food choices based on economic capabilities. Especially for low-earning members of our society (i.e., students), we cannot expect that they will make healthier and local choices when growing prevalence of supermarkets has made processed and imported foods more affordable. Also, the policy ignores other critical aspects that contribute to distanciation from food's source of Japan's modern context, such as changing family patterns due to urbanisation and more women entering the workforce. This means family dinners in the traditional sense are less likely to occur. It also implies that women should be primary caregivers by providing meals to her family, though we know it is unfair to assign domestic gender roles to women vs men.

Policy regarding Shokuiku must include more opinion from various members of society, including those marginalised by its initial policy, like women and low-income groups. Polycentric governance implicit in operating from a food sovereignty lens could help guide the program's reform. As a result, solutions that are more all-encompassing could be adopted. In addition, more responsibility regarding food choice should be shifted to the government, particularly the education system in engaging youth through curricular change. Whether this is best done from a federal level or interpreted and delivered by subnational governents remains a fundamental research question. These changes could include food literacy workshops or incorporate food-related lessons in all courses, and improvements to the already existent and mandatory home-economics curriculum to teach cooking, food preparation and storage, and critical thinking about traceability and food chains.

Washoku