School Outdoor Spaces as Urban Public Space Activators. Three Case Studies in Croatia

In this paper, the authors provide an overview of schools' outdoor spaces. A brief analysis of their historical development is followed by a study of contemporary multifunctional use of school grounds primarily based on an interaction between the community and public urban spaces. Schools' outdoor spaces have lately been comprehensively researched in light of the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on teaching as well as the long-standing awareness of the importance of eco-friendly living. Architectural elements of schoolyards of the early twentieth-century Open Air Schools, created to improve children's health, and the ensuing process of evolving school outdoor spaces beyond education, are detailed with a vision of connecting schools with the surrounding built environment. Through a comparative analysis of selected case studies in Croatia, the paper presents three examples of interaction between primary school outdoor spaces and urban public spaces. This interaction is a viable future trend in school design and urban planning in view of the reduction of accessible community areas with the aim of bring education back to its origins in nature and urban public spaces. © 2023, Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya. All rights reserved.

'Loob' and 'labas': Spatial constructions of safety and risk amid the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines.

This article argues that local constructions of risky and safe spaces, as articulated by the notions 'loob' (inside) and 'labas' (outside), informed popular and political responses to the COVID-19 pandemic in the Philippines, leading to an overemphasis on staying at home and, conversely, a general avoidance or fear of outdoor spaces that was at times reinforced by public health authorities. Practices and policies related to the pandemic response rendered this binary opposition between 'loob' and 'labas' visible, from regulations concerning the use of personal protective equipment to restrictions of access to outdoor spaces. While this emergent form of bodily proxemics was contested and negotiated over time, its tenacity throughout the pandemic underscores the importance of understanding how people spatialize risk in times of health crises.

Quality, Environmental Comfort and Safety in Public Spaces

Climate change and health emergencies require integrated responses to mitigate the effects of the phenomena on urban realities and citizens and increase their resilience. In line with the principles enshrined in the international summits, the paper illustrates an experimental approach aimed at integrating urban quality, micro-climatic comfort, saving and enhancing the water resource and the reintroduction of nature in the city. The experimentation focuses on the regeneration of public space and at a neighbourhood scale in the dimension of "everyday" living. As enshrined in the New Urban Agenda of 2016, public space plays a central role in helping to increase sustainability, social integration and develop conviviality in urban contexts. The experimentation aims to build a multidisciplinary framework that includes the impacts of climate change and those brought by the experience of the Covid-19 pandemic. The objective is to enrich the concept of urban quality by integrating it with ecological and environmental quality with particular reference to the mitigation of the effects of climate change on urbanized areas. Today, in regenerating the city and designing in the direction of an ecological transition, it is necessary to assume an integrated methodology. The multidisciplinary is in fact the key issue of the proposed experimentation to be able to multiply the quality of urban design. The aim is to meet the needs related to the well-being of the citizen through the integrated analysis of different disciplines related to: urban microclimate, the role of rainwater, the presence of plants and green spaces, land consumption, drainage systems, the connection between the parts of the city and the perception of citizens. The experimentation illustrated proposes an integrated approach to the regeneration of neighbourhoods in the city of Rome by prospecting "neighbourhood green networks" punctuated by interventions of different sizes, applying the principles of urban acupuncture.

The Importance of Outdoor Spaces during the COVID-19 Lockdown in Aotearoa—New Zealand

The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak and its extensive variants have caused drastic changes to people’s habits and routines in many countries worldwide, including Aotearoa—New Zealand. The levels of lockdown and/or movement limitations affected how people used outdoor spaces, often keeping them away from nature’s benefits. The COVID-19 pandemic and the measures adopted to control it provide an interesting experiment investigating the links between nature exposure, recreational use of outdoor spaces, and people’s health and wellbeing under extreme conditions. Using an online survey distributed during lockdown and based on 212 responses, this article explores the different typologies of the outdoor spaces that people had access to during lockdown and the associated physical activities practised. It investigates how outdoor space affects our emotional response and how such space and related activities can help us cope with confinement. The results of this study enable us to better understand those spatial elements and characteristics of outdoor spaces that are essential to people’s wellbeing, especially in unusual circumstances where access is restricted. © 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland.

Hospital Outdoor Spaces as Respite Areas for Healthcare Staff During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created considerable implications for healthcare staff around the globe. During the pandemic, the frontline healthcare workers experience intense anxiety, stress, burnout, and psychological breakdown, with severe implications on their mental and physical well-being. In addition to these implications, anxiety and stress can hinder their productivity and ability to perform their duties efficiently. The literature indicates that hospital gardens and contact with nature can help alleviate psychological distress among hospital staff. However, few studies investigated the role of outdoor spaces as areas for respite and work breaks in healthcare facilities during the pandemic. The present opinion paper highlights the challenges of job stress and psychological distress health workers face during the pandemic. This article also underscores the role of hospital outdoor spaces and garden facilities in coping with the challenges. While other measures to reduce stress among hospital staff and ensure their health and safety are important, hospital administrators and relevant government agencies should also emphasize the provision of gardens and open spaces in healthcare facilities. These spaces can act as potential areas for respite for hospital staff to help them cope with the stress and anxiety accumulated through working under crises.

Mental health and well-being in times of COVID-19: A mixed-methods study of the role of neighborhood parks, outdoor spaces, and nature among US older adults.

The role of parks and nature to support well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic is uncertain. To examine this topic, we used mixed-methods data collected in April-May 2020 from US adults aged ≥55 in the COVID-19 Coping Study. We quantitatively evaluated the associations between number of neighborhood parks and depression, anxiety, and loneliness; and conducted qualitative thematic analysis of participants' outdoor experiences. Among urban residents, depression and anxiety were inversely associated with the number of neighborhood parks. Thematic analysis identified diverse engagement in greenspaces that boosted physical, mental, and social well-being. The therapeutic potential of outdoor and greenspaces should be considered for interventions during future epidemics.

ADAPTING COMMON SPACES IN MULTI-FAMILY BUILDINGS DURING PANDEMICS

The COVID-19 lockdown has hinted deficiencies in homes, which are usually related to the absence of outdoor spaces, mitigating confinement negative effects, mostly in those located at plurifamiliar buildings. Main objective on this research has been to propose different ways of adapting existing common outdoor spaces available in these buildings, to give them a semiprivate use during pandemics. Open space reuse improves the quality of life of the neighbors who live in them. Possible interactions that its use can produce has been studied, considering the percentage of the affected population, in case of Region of Murcia (Spain), attending the characteristics of the buildings are inhabited. Criteria to be taken into account in the design and implementation of the new outdoor spaces have been established, as well as the applicable sanitary measures for the use and enjoyment of the rest of the common spaces, trying to make a better compilation. This casuistry has made possible to project a series of adaptation proposals, taking into account economic viability, in order to be applicable not only at the geographical area under study, but also to the rest of the national territory, as well to other countries with similar urban and architectural characteristics. © 2022, Universidade do Vale do Rio dos Sinos. All rights reserved.

Smart Tree: An Architectural, Greening and ICT Multidisciplinary Approach to Smart Campus Environments.

At present, climate change, pollution, and uncontrolled urbanism threaten not only natural ecosystems, but also the urban environment. Approaches to mitigate these challenges and able to provide an alternative for the use of the space are deemed to be multidisciplinary, combining architecture, vegetation integration, circular economy and information and communications technologies (ICT). University campuses are a key scenario to evaluate such solutions as their student and research community is intrinsically willing to support these experiences and provide a wide knowledge on the fields necessary for their design and implementation. However, the creation of areas combining usability and sustainability is commonly lacking a multidisciplinary approach combining all these different perspectives. Hence, the present work aims to overcome this limitation by the development of a novel integrated approach for campus spaces for co-working and leisure, namely a "Smart Tree", where novel architecture, furniture design, flora integration, environmental sensoring and communications join together. To this end, a survey of the literature is provided, covering related approaches as well as general principles behind them. From this, the general requirements and constraints for the development of the Smart Tree area are identified, establishing the main interactions between the architecture, greening and ICT perspectives. Such requirements guide the proposed system design and implementation, whose impact on the environment is analyzed. Finally, the research challenges and lessons learned for their development are identified in order to support future works.

COVID-19 and the Dreads of Hospitalization: Connecting With a Recollection of Memories As a Patient of Dengue Fever.

I have spent a considerable time in visiting and even staying at various hospitals since my childhood. With many of the memories still intact, the one encounter whose mark is an enduring one in my mind is when I caught dengue fever and was admitted to a public hospital. During this stay, I remember largely being restless inside my room. However, visiting an outdoor ground near my ward was always a rejuvenating experience and made me feel stronger and better. It was during that time when I truly realized the significance of indoor as well as outdoor design quality of health care buildings and how they impact the well-being of their users. To say the least, that short stay at the hospital was one of the major reasons that why for my graduate and undergraduate theses, I chose to explore the role of well-designed and accessible outdoor spaces especially gardens in health care buildings for promoting mental as well as physical health and well-being among users. Presently, as we steer through a deadly pandemic, my own experiences from this hospital stay makes me want to reflect back and reemphasize on why there is a need for health care policy makers and relevant governmental bodies to strategize and prioritize long-term goals for implementing measures such as evidence-based design considerations of hospitals, especially in developing countries, and to promote accessible, inclusive, and safe healing spaces where patients may leave with positive experiences instead of negative reminiscences and where the staff can also use these spaces for respite.