topos 136 | health in cities

Can a city make us healthier?
The places where we live, move, meet and recover profoundly shape our health – yet urban planning has only begun to fully acknowledge this. This issue of topos investigates the healthy metropolis from multiple perspectives: from healing landscapes and active mobility to social infrastructure, urban nature, healthcare and harm reduction. Across cities and disciplines, we explore a simple but radical idea: health is not only treated in the city. It is designed into it.

Topics

• THE METROPOLIS AS A HEALTH SYSTEM
  An Introduction by Ramona Kraxner
• "SMALL CAN STILL BE IMPACTFUL"
  Interview with Andrea Mechelli
• THE HEALTH COST OF THE METROPOLIS
  How urban systems shape who benefits from the city – and who bears its health risks.
• "THE CITY NEEDS A MENTAL INFRASTRUCTURE"
  Interview with Prof. Dr. Mazda Adli
• MOVEMENT IS MEDICINE
  Making everyday movement part of urban life
• "WE NO LONGER HAVE AN EXCUSE"
  Interview with Carlo Ratti
• NATURE ON PRESCRIPTION
  When nature becomes part of preventive healthcare
• CAN LANDSCAPES HEAL?
  How landscape architecture can support health, recovery and everyday well-being
• SUMMER DOES NOT CARE ABOUT OUR STANDARDS
  Why Europe needs to move from heat guidelines to action
• THE CARING METROPOLIS
  How urban planning can turn streets, housing and public spaces into a new infrastructure of care
• "WE NEED EACH OTHER"
  Interview with Eric Klinenberg
• WHO GETS TO STAY IN THE CITY?
  Addiction, Harm Reduction and the Right to the City
• CONTRIBUTORS