Health and therapeutic landscapes

The idea that some places make people better is an old one, and it has an uneasy relationship with evidence. This theme examines the connection between landscape and wellbeing: what is claimed for it, what can be demonstrated, and what follows for how land is designed, managed and made available.

Research here covers therapeutic landscapes and the traditions of thought behind them, green space and public health, gardens and growing as forms of care, and the mental as well as physical dimensions of access to the outdoors. It attends closely to distribution, since a benefit reaching only those who already live near a park is not a public good. The pandemic sharpened all of this, and a good deal of the material in this theme was written while its consequences were still being worked out.