ARCH 463 – Sustainable Systems

Wethny Antoine, Mark Davis and Terrell Dawkins

Spring 2021

Professor M. Binder

Healthy Environment, Healthy Humans

Analysis of local design strategies and initiatives that look to tackle leading causes of poor health in the United
States, the potential role of biophilic design and social challenges that currently exist.

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 Healthy Environment, Healthy Humans

The recent COVID pandemic has highlighted many instabilities related to the economy, health and social
inequalities. While advancement in medical technology and research has made the United States a leading nation
in fighting life threatening diseases and viruses, many of the health issues and threats that plague the United
States are still preventable. The CDC lists leading major causes of death as various cancers, chronic lower
respiratory diseases, diabetes, and largest killer heart disease. The latter regularly even surpasses the current
COVID death number and in 2019 stood at 659,041 (roughly 1 in 4 deaths) (CDC 2020).

Food safety, lack of suitable nutrition and exercise can be directly associated with heart disease and strokes. The
causes and current challenges related to these are often deep rooted socially and affected by the makeup of the
environment around those. These are not irreversible however as challenges of recent pandemic looks to further
increase death rates so is maybe this the time to turn to nature to help the Health of Americans?

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Diet and Biophilia

Nutrition is one of the most crucial factors that we must account for. As humans, there is one truth that we cannot
disregard: Everybody needs to eat to continue living. Food plays a crucial role in our lives because we simply
could not live without it. While we must eat to survive, we cannot just eat whatever is available and consider
ourselves healthy. Heart disease is the most common cause of death in our country, and one of the ways that
people can contract it is by having an extremely poor diet (Mayo Clinic). Another issue plaguing our country now
is obesity. In our country, around 42.4 percent of Americans are considered obese (Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention). On the flipside, malnutrition is another issue that is prevalent in our country. In 2016, 12% of
American households contained a malnourished person with most of these homes containing families that are of
a low socioeconomic status (Shifler Bowers et al.). The main tie that is connecting these three conditions is that
the people who are suffering from these conditions are not receiving the proper intake of nutrients that they need.
For 1 in 9 Americans, they suffer from food insecurity; They are unable to consistently obtain the proper foods
needed to live a healthy life (Healthy People). Food insecurity is most prevalent in lower income households, and
it is no surprise that these low-income households are also high in the rates of heart disease, obesity,
malnutrition, and other nutrition-related diseases (Schultz et al.).

(Fig. 1: Obesity in America from 1999-2018, CDC 2020) (Fig. 2: Heart Disease in America, AHA News)

The main problem when it comes to nutrition is that eating healthy simply costs too much. Why would you
go to the store and buy all the ingredients needed to craft a healthy meal when you can just go to a fast-food
restaurant and get a meal for half of the price? Also, most neighborhoods are closer to a fast-food joint than they
are to an actual supermarket, so it is more convenient for them to head to the joint and get a cheap meal than it is
for them to spend gas to head to a supermarket and purchase healthy foods (Athens et al). The reason nutrition is
being neglected so often is not due to people being lazy but is instead due to people not having the means to
obtain healthy foods for cheap. It is important then to make sure that everyone has access to the proper amount
of food so that they can live. Some design solutions that will assist in this endeavor are food security networks,
agricultural territories, and GROW streets. These solutions were put on display in Fayetteville’s proposed Food

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City scenario (the structure of the city and the positions of the agricultural territories are meant to maximize the
production of food in the city).

(Fig. 3: Distance to Closest Fast Food Restaurant vs Closest Supermarket, Int’l Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity)

The Fayetteville Food City Scenario is a promising plan for the city of Fayetteville that could help cities all around
our country with eliminating their issues with nutrition. The plan was proposed for Fayetteville due to its location in
North Arkansas, which has one of the highest rates of child hunger and food insecurity in the country, and
because of their strong ties to agriculture. The plan is to “integrate the culture and economics of sustainable food
production back into urban design to serve local populations” through the building of more green infrastructure
and a stronger presence of agriculture throughout the city (Luoni et al.). This food city is built from five main
growing guilds: Permaculture, Farming and Gardening, GROW (Garden Right-of-Way) Streets, Pollution
Remediation Landscapes, and Waste-to-Energy districts. Permaculture such as edible forest farms allow for the
continued existence of landscapes and woodlands without having to drastically alter them. Farming and
gardening will allow more food to be created for the city, which will increase food security and decrease the rates
of malnutrition in the city. GROW streets will incorporate gardens throughout the city, so habitants will walk
through orchard-lined streets and can eat the fruit that grows out of their front yard, which should also decrease
the rates of food insecurity and malnutrition for the town. Pollution remediation will dramatically decrease the
runoff and pollution that will be present int he food city, which will have a positive effect on the ecosystem. Waste-
to-Energy districts will strive to turn the waste that is normally tossed aside to usable energy, which will also have
a positive effect on the ecosystem (Luoni et al.). By using these five guilds as a guideline for the construction of
the food city, Fayetteville will be able to provide themselves with their own local produce, which will hopefully be
cheap, and allow their habitants to purchase healthy foods without having to suffer a major financial toll for doing
so.

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 (Fig. 4: The Five Urban Growing Guilds, University of Arkansas Community Design Center)

If the food city is successful, Fayetteville will erase all the issues they had with nutrition, and they will
prove to be an important precedent for other cities to follow if they intend to transform into a food city. If the
Fayetteville Food City Scenario proves to be beneficial for the habitants of the town, there is a high chance that
other cities in the country will follow their example and transform into food cities as well and erase the nutrition
issues found there. Soon, we could live in a country where healthy food is prevalent for most of its citizens and
the rates of nutritional issues such as obesity and malnutrition are negligible.

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Exercise and Green Spaces

Micro strategies such as GROW Street within Fayetteville 2030 offer health benefits beyond those of providing
food access, migrating traffic low / excessive pollution and mental health benefits linked to social interaction and
sense of community. The integration of nature close to where we dwell, work and commute has shown sufficient
positive impact on both our physical and mental wellbeing, however strategies like these are often harder to
implement due to the demands for food cultivation simply not achievable such high population density and even
available land.

New York has featured prominently throughout the current pandemic, the lack of normality within the city
prompting a greater need for more personal space and more importantly outdoor space and nature that saw many
leave the city (BBC, 2020) . The importance of green outdoor space and its relationship to health, particularly obesity
has been a continued study for the city and has become an outlined as challenge since 2007. A staggering 43%
of elementary school children and the majority of adults in New York being overweight or obese and killing 25,000
people annually.(Fig 5)

(Fig 5, Map-Graph of Diabetes and Obesity Rates, NYC 2010, Active Design Guidelines)

The Active Design Guidelines, (NYC 2010) document was developed with help of local architects for city wide
planning looking to tackle the causes of this epidemic with conscious and considerate design focused at
encouraging exercise, walkability and reducing reliance of car travel. Combined with initiatives with the larger

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city’s expansive stainability program PlaNYC (NYC 2007) one of the goals is to acquire more green open space and
ensure that it is accessible to more diverse social backgrounds that had previously been debrided of.

The Bigger picture, additional goals of the city’s PlaNYC environmental strategy include:
• Creating homes for a million more New Yorkers • Improving transit capacity and reduce travel times
• Developing a back-up system for water systems • Repairing and improving the City’s transportation
infrastructure
• Supplying cleaner, more reliable power sources • Reducing global warming emissions by more than 30%
• Improving air quality • Cleaning up and restore contaminated land in New York City
and opening 90% of the waterways to recreation while reducing water pollution and protecting natural areas

It is seen as a very real change in the socioeconomic status in parts of the city with the goal of every resident to
live within a 10-minute walk of a park or green space by 2030. This proximity helping to promote wellbeing and
equality relating to access to outdoor resources. Studies by Dr Takemi Sugiyama, Swinburne University of
Technology helping bridge intentions of this space relating to exercise within the Active Design Guidelines,
“Having good quality greenspace close to housing was not associated with initiating recreational walking;
however, proximity was associated with maintaining it”. (SUGIYAMA, 2010)

The green spaces mentioned in PlaNYC typically include woodland area, trees, natural surfaces such as grass,
unrestricted natural sunlight, and blue spaces such as ponds or coastal zones. It is important to consider that New
York parks and green spaces have no minimum requirement for both area and green elements, while the city can
boast many expansive destination parks, smaller green spaces like Septuagesimo Uno (160 m2 coverage) (Fig 6 & 7)

show the very real challenges limited available land in dense communities have. Additionally, over 40% of New
York’s 52,000 acres of parkland is not own by the city which poses the initial challenges with governing parkland,
allowing access to communities and funding associated with the site, the city continues to work with varied
entities to help make these green spaces a reality.(Fig 8)

(Fig 6, Septuageimo Uni, W. 71st Street and, West End Ave, New York) (Fig 7, Septuageimo Uni, documented by the NC Parks mapping system)

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But the value of green space goes beyond being an environment for physical exercise, Urban green Spaces and
Health (WHO 2016) A World Health Organization report compiles proven health studies for benefits specifically related
to biophilic design in green spaces.

Mental Health Benefits, Psychoneuroendocrine responses in humans to woodland environments from multiple
studies (HARTIG, 2003), (OTTOSSON & GRAHN, 2005), show reduced blood pressure, heart rate, skin conductance and muscle
tension. These documenting the innate need for nature that humans have internally. While the social importance
of having a green space acts as mechanism for interaction between humans and community that combats
depression associated with loneliness (MAAS, J., 2009) Sensory response from noise buffering through dense
vegetation can also affect emotional response relating to city traffic, even exposing humans to calming or natural
sounds like birds. While these studies do not often factor in social backdrops, gender, and age of users of
greenspaces it is important to consider that it may change the perceptions and responses they experience. A
space void of security or susceptible to crime can cause vastly different results so while Biophilic Design has
mental health benefit social factors can play a huge effect on the success of implementation. (BOGAR 2015)

Vegetation within green spaces can improve air quality by mitigating air pollution however New York’s air quality
strategy focuses on reducing emissions foremost for improvement of air quality. But many of the health benefits
from biophilic design are not often experienced directly, one of these is the affect that green space has on the
Urban Heat Island effect. The heat generated from humans, transports narrow street planning and the mostly
concrete of cities including New York trap heat, this intern making excessive and uncomforted temperatures for
inhabitants. The biproduct of the cooling that is demanded from these conditions increase the levels of harmful
pollutants in the air through energy consumption and a vicious cycle is created. Using evapotranspiration,
communities can take advance of passive air-cooling and in instances where water is present cooling and heating
when seasonally using passive techniques. Vegetation can help with solar transmission offering shade in summer
season and solar gain in the winter season. Finally green Spaces can help mitigate flooding in some instances
within the city with stormwater systems and creating new habitats for animal species and vegetation. While these
can be quite simple design strategies, they can be very affective over a large urban cityscape.

PlaNYC’s targets for parks and public spaces within the city, with goal of ensuring New Yorkers live within a 10-
minute walk of a park (LICLEI 2010).

1.) Create tools to identify parks and public space priority areas 2) Open underutilized spaces as playgrounds or
part-time public spaces. 3) Facilitate urban agriculture and community gardening. 4) Continue to expand usable
hours at existing sites. 5) Create and upgrade flagship parks. 6) Convert former landfills into public space and
parkland. 7) Increase opportunities for water-based recreation. 7) Activate the streetscape
8) Improve collaboration between City, state, and federal partners. 9) Create a network of green corridors.
10)Plant one million trees. 11) Conserve natural areas. 12) Support ecological connectivity. 13) Support and
encourage stewardship. 14) Incorporate sustainability through the design and maintenance of all public space

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 (Fig 8, Plan of New York’s implementation of new urban green space and parks built between 2007 & 2010, LILEI 2010 )

While parks such as Pier 36, that covers 28,000 sq feet (about the area of a large mansion) of waterline
downtown and boasts technology such as a habitat for mussels may capture the imagination, the breakdown of
social barriers that affect local proximity to open spaces is a more important priority for residents of New York.
The need for urban green space within PlaNYC strategy may seem like exceedingly small step forward, but it is
important to consider that 83% of all Americans live in cities (UOM, 2020). An implementation of micro level biophilic
design in the form of strategies like this with green spaces has serious potential to not only reduce death numbers
and hospitalizations but improve heath in the US at both local and national levels. The past year has highlighted
that healthier populations contribute to stronger resilient communities and economies, prior to the pandemic it is
estimated $530 Billion per year is lost through productivity loss related to illness and 1.4 billion workdays absence
(GLOBENWISE.COM). It is unknow the true effects of not being able to access outdoor space during this time but further
extends the innate need we have as humans to nature. And while accessibility to healthcare will continue to be
discussed, accessibility to green space and their associated health benefits look to be a reality.

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Life Safety

Other forms of improving human health come from societal innovations. These innovations that improve
human health usually revolve around solutions provided by existing technology and how they are used. When
further dissecting solutions to improve human health, some context within current technological advances is
needed. Specifically, this context revolves around how motor vehicles would fit into a more sustainable
environment. Motor vehicles, much like other forms of advanced technology, are required to adapt to new forms.
One can see these issues regarding motor vehicle injuries that plague our current environment.

For example, even though vehicles fatalities have decreased since 2005, the CDC reports that “the
number of deaths in 2015 have increased to 35,092” (Shacter 2017) (Fig 9). This article also states that “continued
implementation of proven strategies can save thousands of lives and hundreds of millions of dollars in direct
medical costs from motor vehicle crash injuries” (Shacter 2017) . Therefore, these potential solutions would not only
serve as a magnanimous purpose, but also as an economic one. Other sources, such as the Georgia Department
of Public Health, state that “Motor vehicle crashes (MVCs) are the leading cause of injury deaths and second leading
cause of hospitalizations and ER visits in Georgia” (Motor Vehicle Crashes 2018). If one were to opt for a more recent
statistic, the same department also states that “In 2017, motor vehicle traffic deaths were the leading cause of
injury deaths for children and adults between 5 and 24 years of age in addition to adults aged 55 to 64…Georgia
had the 4th greatest number of traffic fatalities (1,540) in the nation” (Motor Vehicle Crashes 2018).

(Fig 9, Notice the spike of injuries in 2015)

Some might view the aforementioned statistic as dated; however, in more recent news, motor vehicle
injuries continued to increase despite the implementation of nationwide lockdowns. This was reported by the

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National Safety Council. According to the NSC, “the number of motor vehicle fatalities per 100 miles increased by
14 percent over the March 2019 rate” (Motor Vehicle Fatality Rates Jump 14% 2020). Furthermore, there were distinct spikes of
roadway deaths in specific states. For instance, “Through the first three months of 2020, the following states have
experienced notable increases in the number of roadway deaths: Arkansas (16%), California (8%), Connecticut
(42%), Illinois (11%), Louisiana (23%), Nevada (10%), New York (17%), North Carolina (10%), Oklahoma (9%),
Tennessee (6%) and Texas (6%)” (Motor Vehicle Fatality Rates Jump 14% 2020). With all this in mind, it is
important to recognize the fact that these issues are both nationwide and imperative to understanding how
detrimental these injuries are to human health.

There are numerous design strategies one can make to combat the issues caused by motor vehicle
injuries. One such strategy pertains to how one would design specific streets. For example, one would consider
the design of more compact and connected cities. These types of cities can reduce both the volume of traffic and
how often pedestrians are exposed to oncoming vehicles. The feasibility of this solution is almost palpable when
comparing existing cities. For instance, the cities of Barcelona, Spain and Atlanta, Georgia have different design
elements in how compactly built they are. Between Barcelona and Atlanta, Barcelona is more compact despite
the fact that they both have a similar population of 5 and 5.25 million respectively (Luke & Sharpin 2019) (Figure 10) . The
compactness of these cities is relevant because, studies have found that “For every 1% increase in the index…
the traffic fatality rate decreased by 1.49% (Bertaud 2013) . This change may seem insignificant in the short term,
however, in the long term, this solution would be very effective.

(Fig 10, Illustration comparing the cities of Barcelona and Atlanta)

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Another solution for managing motor vehicle injuries is designing smarter streets. When referring to ‘smarter
streets’, one usually refers to improving the “safety and quality of life by improving visibility and accessibility for
people… and encourage safer behavior from drivers” (Luke & Sharpin 2019). These improved qualities can refer to the
implementation of traffic circles/ roundabouts, speed humps, and narrower roads. A roundabout’s circular
structure “reduce the severity of crashes because all traffic is moving in the same direction, vehicles are forced to
slow down and there is a lower chance of head-on collisions” (Luke & Sharpin 2019). Furthermore, these same
roundabouts are found to have a noticeable “70-90 percent reduction in fatal and serious injuries” (Schuyler et al. 2018) (Fig
11) . As for speed humps, these design elements are not complexly built; however, their continued use indicates
their effectiveness. For instance, certain studies have found that speed humps continually reduce traffic by at
least 50 percent (Schuyler et al. 2018). The primary reason for this is because its design “can be smoothly traversed by
cars traveling at the desired speed for safety, rather than causing rapid deceleration and acceleration” (Schuyler et al.

2018). Finally, narrower lanes are shown to shorten the distance of pedestrian crossings while also providing “more
space for sidewalks, a critical need in dense urban environments” (Schuyler et al. 2018).

(Fig 11, Chart Provided by The Washington State Department of Transportation showing the reduction rates caused by roundabouts)

Finally, one other solution for creating a healthy impact on decreasing motor vehicle injuries is the use of high-
quality forms of public transit. Today, one would primarily travel by car to reach a certain destination; however,

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there are numerous studies that show that some forms of high-quality public transit actually reduce crash rates.
For example, some studies have found that “In high-income countries, the traffic casualty rate for public transport
is 10 percent of that for automobile travel. People who live in transit-oriented communities have about 20 percent
the crash casualty rate as people who live in automobile-oriented communities” (Luke & Sharpin 2019). Even specific
forms of public transit, such as buses have also been found to reduce fatal accidents by 50% (Adriazola-Steil 2015) .
Additionally, there are certain methods architects and urban designers can employ to make use of the advantages
of public transits. One strategy an architect or urban designer can employ is to design specific sites with the
intention of using more active modes of travel that do not require the use of an automobile. According to research
conducted in California, “increased parking supply may result in reduced active transportation and public transit
use”, (Active Design 28). Therefore, with less drivers on the road, there will be a noticeable reduction in car accidents.
Additionally, architects and urban designers can also consider furnishing certain transit stops to better
accommodate pedestrians. Some of these elements include: “Make sidewalks wide enough to comfortably
accommodate pedestrians, including those with disabilities, provide additional space for passengers to wait by
adding bus bulbs, create bus stop shelters that protect users from sun, wind, and rain, and furnish bus stop
shelters with seating or places to lean” (Active Design 28-29) (Fig.12).

(Fig 12, An example of a furnished bus stop shelter with seating to accommodate potential pedestrians)

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Social Challenges

Discussing the challenges at varying strategic scales and locations and the ways considerate design can better
public health in communities that are void of necessary access to necessary nutrition or limited access to biophilic
and open space to partake in physical exercise or even safety relating the ways we commute some underlining
similarities start to form.

The relationship between partially race and class amongst other factors such as age and gender often dictate our
surrounding environments, with poor health and disabilities both a factor and equally as result of health issues
discussed. It means that forward thinking design ideas such as smarter streets or the implementation of biophilia
while effective needs the support not just from those that are the eventual beneficiaries with the necessary
change in attitude and daily lifestyle but support from those more importantly in power. As the United States
continues to strive towards equality there is hope that conscious design can have a pivotal role in that change.
Whether from guidance via politicians such as the previous Mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg that understands
the value of health and role with environmental sustainability or through continued University research and
architecture collaborations it is up to individual Cities, States and Governments to understand the adequate
investment in social change through designing and shaping our environment and its affects eventual goals with
public health.

Data and research are such an incredibly important tools but is invalid when those in society chose to reject it in
favor of convenience, a fear of uncertainty and continued hegemonic groups oppressing groups affected by poor
health. COVID however destructive has highlighted the need for be both proactive when tackling together our
health issues and this level of concern should considered in the same way for preventable causes of death such
as chronic lower respiratory diseases, diabetes, heart disease and deaths due to motor accidents.

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