An Introduction to Healthy Places

Abstract

The environment consists of the external (or nongenetic) factors—physical, nutritional, social, behavioral, and others—that act on humans, and the built environment is made up of the many aspects of their surroundings created by humans, such as buildings, neighborhoods, and cities. Health can be defined as complete physical mental, and social well-being This definition extends beyond the absence of disease to include many dimensions of comfort and well-being. While clinicians care for individual patients public health professionals aim to improve health at the level of populations The design professions include urban planning architecture, landscape architecture, and transportation planning Each of these focuses on an aspect of the built environment. Both the public health profession and the design professions took modern form during the nineteenth century in response to rapid population growth, industrialization and urbanization, and the resulting problems of the urban environment. Leading causes of morbidity and mortality include heart disease cancer, diabetes, stroke, injuries, and mental illness. Many of these are related to community design choices. Even though public health has evolved as a distinct field from planning and architecture, these domains have numerous opportunities to collaborate, and this collaboration can lead to improved health, well-being, and sustainability in many ways.