Role of Urban Public Space in Sustaining Mental Well-being: Inferences from Pandemic Scenario

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Published: Oct 3, 2023

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Asesh Sarkar
PhD Scholar, Architecture & Planning Department, IIT Roorkee
https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7714-2208
Sayna Anand
PhD Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5396-970X
Surya PS
PhD Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5560-3883
Iqra Rafiq
PhD Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6062-4654
Tina Pujara
Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.
https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3356-0816

Abstract

People go to urban public spaces for their needs of social interaction. It has been established that social interactions in public places hosting various active and passive activities have multiple psychological health benefits. However, public spaces have ceased to be public during the pandemic. With the pandemic and the following lockdown, people have begun to acknowledge the significant role of the urban public spaces for their social needs. This paper attempts to understand this acknowledgement regarding the Indian context and relates to the stress level of citizens due to the restrictions in using outdoor spaces. The study tries to comprehend the difficulties of staying indoors and not being able to socially interact in the urban public spaces and infers to be negatively impacted the mental well-being. The study primarily attempted to analyze the connect between the use of urban public space, mental well-being and social interaction through a survey (n=277) referring to the stress level of the citizens during the first wave of Covid-19. This research infers a strong connect between the use of public spaces and the citizen's mental well-being with the further potential of using the inferences to formulate a healthy city urban public space design guideline.

Article Details

Issue
Vol. 8 No. 1 (2023)
Section
Research Articles
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Author Biographies

Asesh Sarkar, PhD Scholar, Architecture & Planning Department, IIT Roorkee

Currently, a PhD scholar and a member of “Happiness by Design” Research group, at the Department of Architecture and Planning in IIT Roorkee; his research involves “Association between urban environments and mental Well-being”. He is committed to build psychologically healthier cities by evaluating urban environment indicators associated with mental well-being. He is a member of The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), International Society for Urban Health, Council of Architecture and Institute of Town Planners, India.

Sayna Anand, PhD Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.

Sayna Anand is currently pursuing her PhD and is a member of the ‘Happiness by Design’ Research group at Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT, Roorkee. Her research focuses on assessing the impact of streetscapes on anxiety of the users. She is committed to bring about a positive transformation in cities as an urban designer. She is a member of The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), IUDI (Institute of Urban Designers India) and Council of Architecture.

Surya PS, PhD Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee

Surya. P.S, is currently a professor at Dept. of Architecture, TKM College of Engineering, Kollam. She is pursuing her PhD (Part time) and is a member of the ‘Happiness by Design’ Research group at Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT, Roorkee. Her research focuses on assessing the impact of color psychology of urban street facade on emotional wellbeing of residents. She is a member of The Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA), Institute of Urban Designers India (IUDI), Indian Institute of Architects (IIA) and Council of Architecture (COA).

Iqra Rafiq, PhD Scholar, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.

Iqra Rafiq is currently pursuing her PhD and is a member of the ‘Happiness by Design’ Research group at Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT, Roorkee. Her research focuses on forming the relationship between urban design and stress. She is a founding member of Institute of Ekistics, India, and Council of Architecture.

Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.

Tina Pujara, Assistant Professor, Department of Architecture and Planning, IIT Roorkee.

Tina is a professor of Architecture and Urban Design with specialization in ‘neighborhood design and happiness’ at the Indian Institute of Technology (I.I.T) Roorkee in India. Her work focuses specifically on the association of happiness with the built environment. Research-wise she many a times sees herself as a social scientist with a strong design focus and has an inclination towards multidisciplinary research. In parallel to this, she has a strong interest in looking at design processes and the pedagogy of these. Tina collaborates with urban designers and researchers across the globe to help build happier cities. Previously, she has lead ‘Cities and Urban Happiness: The Role of Urban Form’, a research project with collaborators from Germany and Vietnam. Tina has been a recipient of the Swiss Government Excellence Scholarship and was an academic guest researching on urban design at ETH Zurich in Switzerland prior to joining IIT Roorkee.