Recipes for Urban Happiness reframes urban design around a single compelling proposition: that the built environment functions like a diet, shaping the quality and range of experiences available to the people who inhabit it.
About This Book
What if the spaces we design were understood not as backdrops to daily life but as the conditions that make certain lives possible — or impossible? Jenny Donovan builds her argument around the concept of an “experience diet”: the idea that physical surroundings either nourish or deplete the people within them, affecting physical, cognitive, and emotional health in measurable ways. This is a book for practitioners who want a framework that connects urban design decisions to genuine community well-being, and for students and academics working at the intersection of public health, place-making, and design. Donovan translates this thinking into practical guidance, outlining what designers and non-designers alike can do to create urban environments where healthy, nurturing behaviours are both possible and preferred.
Key Features
- 278 pages of practice-oriented design guidance grounded in public health and community development frameworks
- Written by Jenny Donovan
- Published by Routledge, ISBN 9780367340322
What You'll Discover
- The “experience diet” framework — how the range and quality of experiences a place affords directly influences the health and resilience of its inhabitants
- What distinguishes a healthy experience diet (inspiration, delight, reassurance, play) from an impoverished one, and how design choices determine which people receive
- Practical guidance for both designers and non-designers on creating urban places where nurturing behaviours are preferable, not merely possible
- A reframing of what “good urban design” means — one rooted in human potential rather than formal or aesthetic criteria alone
About the Author
Jenny Donovan is the author of Recipes for Urban Happiness, a work that bridges urban design practice with public health and community development. [Details available upon request]
Specifications
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 278
- Dimensions: 24 x 17 cm
- Language: English
- ISBN: 9780367340322
- Publisher: Routledge
- Publication Date: [Details available upon request]
Perfect For: Urban designers, architects, public health practitioners, community development professionals, and students and academics working at the intersection of place-making, design, and community well-being.