Global Health
Environments by Design

Health, Wellbeing and Place
Event Date: December 1-3, 2021
Abstract Date: October 25, 2021
Organizers
Italian Society for the Sociology of Health; Syracuse University, USA; Chalmers University of Technology, Sweden; Northumbria University, UK

Call

On January 1st, 2020, the world woke to news that a pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan, China, had been identified as a strain of coronavirus. By March, the World Health Organization would define it as a pandemic and the most serious global health threat on the planet. Under lockdown conditions the relationship between health and the spaces we inhabit became central.

The response from professionals and academics was immediate. Public health officials became consultants on ‘healthy buildings’, infectious disease specialists advised on planning codes, mental health experts became advisors on design strategy. Environmental psychologists collaborated on adapting homes for lockdown, sociologists re-examined behaviour in public space; teachers critiqued new spatial uses of the classrooms and, by extension, interior work environments of every type.

It is tempting to see this recent global concern about health and environments as new. The reality is, it has a long history. The public health profession was born from the housing conditions of the 19th century urban poor. ‘Sick building syndrome’ has been a concern for years. Demands for walkable neighbourhoods are long standing. Housing for the elderly, accessible design, and the broader healthy cities agenda globally, all pre-date COVID-19.

Seen in this light, this conference seeks to bring recent experiences and responses into dialogue with these longer standing areas of research into health, wellbeing and environments. It does so through setting up multiple strands including: COVID-19, Public health, environmental psychology, mental health; accessible design and social inclusion; space inequities and cross societal groups; air quality, green spaces, walkable cities, accessible transport; welfare institutions such as hospitals, schools and community centres; behaviors, communities, neighborhoods and housing; connectivity across healthcare and the built environments, and more.

Disciplines

  • Public Health
  • Architecture
  • Urban Design
  • Mental Health
  • Sociology
  • Housing
  • Environmental Psychology
  • Interior Design
  • Landscape
  • Architecture

Key Dates

Abstracts [Round 1]
25 July 2021
Abstract Feedback
25 October 2021
Abstracts [Round 2]
05 November 2021
Conference
01-03 December 2021
Full Paper Submissions (where applicable)
30 Jan 2022
Feedback for publication
30 March 2022
Publication
30 June 2022

Themes

Italian Society for the Sociology of Health
Accessible design and social inclusion
Syracuse University
Public space inequities and cross societal groups
Cross institutional
Air quality | Green Spaces | Walkable Cities | Accessible transport
Chalmers University
Welfare institutions – hospitals, schools, community centre
Northumbria University
Connectivity across healthcare and the built environments

Formats

The conference welcomes case studies, design proposals, research projects, investigative papers and theoretical considerations as written papers, Zoom and pre-recorded presentations.

 

Zoom
Pre-Recorded Presentation
Film
Lighting Talks
Written Paper

Publications

The publishers that AMPS works with include UCL Press, Routledge Taylor & Francis, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, Vernon Press, Libri Publishing and Intellect Books.

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Conference outputs include the AMPS Proceedings Series, ISSN 2398-9467; Special Issue Publications of the academic journal Architecture_MPS ISSN 2020-9006; Books with the publishing houses listed above and short films available on the AMPS Academic YouTube Channel.

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Written papers are optional.  If submitted they should be 3,000 word length. Formatting instructions to follow after the conference. All papers are double- blind peer reviewed for the AMPS Conference Proceedings Series. Subject to review, selected authors will be invited to develop longer versions as articles in the academic journal Architecture_MPS or in specially produced conference books.

Image: Florian Schmetz