Creating Healthy Landscapes: Urban Strategies to Improve the Quality of Life

For a long time, landscapes have represented places of well-being and this association is even more explicit today; much international research has demonstrated the positive effects that good-quality landscapes have on our health and well-being. The relationship between urban landscape and social “determinants of health” is related to “conditions” that include income and social status, social support networks, education, employment/working conditions, social environments, physical environments, personal health practices, etc. The Landscape Institute suggests five principles for urban landscapes that are essential to creating healthy places to live: quality, healthy lifestyles, social interaction, healthy opportunities for development, and being restorative, uplifting and healing. This article presents two projects that promote a new role for the urban landscape according to these principles. The first one is the Scottish policy “Creating Places” for a more attractive place in which to live and work, whose goals are: successful, thriving and sustainable places and communities; greener public buildings that represent good value; and reducing barriers to good quality development. The second project is the “SuperBlock” project in Barcelona. The plan provides a solution to reduce traffic by 21% as well as noise levels. The plan is based around the idea of “superilles”, mini neighbourhoods around which traffic will flow. The result will eliminate the use of many roads throughout the city to create a healthier and more pleasant living environment for the inhabitants of Barcelona.