Healing Space in High-Density Urban Contexts

People in cities are experiencing various kinds of work-life conflict, burnout, and turnover towards mental and physical illness. These challenges are exacerbated by highly dense urban environments, which result in extra environmental stress such as noise and crowding. The research is set in Southeast Asia, where a large population lives and works in cities and suffers physical and psychological pressure due to the high-density environment. The research is to find correlations between the specific site configurations, physical environments, and human perceptions in the high-density urban context. Based on this, the chapter proposes a series of design strategies and implementations for the cities with comparable climate conditions and urban morphology. The output of this research contributes to the reinterpretation of “healing space” from medical and behavioral sciences to environmental studies and then transforms it into buildable design strategies and recommendations.