Designing urban green spaces supporting health and recovery

All over the world, people migrate from the countryside to the cities. The demand for land, especially in the central parts of cities, often leads to densification, where green spaces disappear in favour of workplaces, streets, shopping centres, and housing. Densification is expected to provide many advantages in contrast to urban sprawl, such as shorter distances between homes and workplaces, which, among other things, can lead to a reduction in traffic (Elfering & Huber, this volume, Chapter 2). From a technological-economic perspective, densification at the expense of parkland may seem rational (Artmann et al., 2019; Pelczynski & Tomkowicz, 2019; Pont et al., 2021; Teller, 2021). At the same time, more and more people worldwide are suffering from stress-related illnesses. In fact, the World Health Organization has designated stress-related ill health as “the health epidemic of the 21st century” (Fink, 2017, p. 1). For many decision-makers, the connection between green spaces in urban areas and people’s health and well-being may be abstract and difficult to understand, although it has long been known that densely built-up cities with noisy, crowded streets and squares cause stress (Ostfeld & D’Atri, 1975). However, humans are biological beings, where exposure to natural areas affects our health. In this chapter, an urban structure is proposed that is based on people’s immediate need for green areas in the places where they live, work, study, or are cared for. The chapter begins by explaining how green areas can lead to recovery, for example, from high stress levels, where the need for green areas starts inside the houses and extends over the entire city