Hi Hazel, this is such an interesting question. In my opinion, space directly affect human health. I this sense, for example, cities that have bike mobility will probably affect positively. On the other hand, cities that the car are used with principal way of transport may have more health problem (pollution, poor human exercise, more stressfully life, etc. ). There are many aspects that could be analysed. I suggest you see some urban studies that have applied “space syntax” to analyse the impact in human health (I just attached two publication). 

best regards,

Patricia

http://www.sss8.cl/media/upload/paginas/seccion/8183_.pdf

http://www.sss8.cl/media/upload/paginas/seccion/8236_3.pdf

Hi Hazel

What do you mean by 'public space'?

There's also a growing body of work looking at the link between 'green' space such as parks in urban areas and health and wellbeing. In short it appears that access to and use of green space can help improve health in various ways including physical exercise, relaxation, and restorative capacity. There's a lot of confounding factors of course, but even taking out social economic status, these beneficial impacts of green spaces on the health of local populations seem robust.

Hi Patricia, thank a lot for your suggestions. I agree with your thought about car use is a cause of health problem in city. In the articles which you have shared here, it is clear that there is a strong relationship between health and space so what characteristics of public space such as green open space which is expecting a meaningful existence in urban.

Hi Stephen Fargo, as i have mentioned in my explanation for my question. I am currently interested in green open space such as park. I am concerning whether or not failure of urban design in terms of landscape design and its built environment of which outcomes leading to many parks or public spaces existing with ignoring from people living around. I would be appreciated any thoughts.

Thanks!

Hi Philip L Staddon, thank you for your interesting answer! Due to requirement to complete my master course, green public space could be my topic of a subject which i am taking at the moment. I have been struggling to narrow my topic in terms of relationship between problems to solve and outcomes of research for topic. I am looking forward to your suggestions to star my research as soon as possible. 

Hi Hazel

Even for a Master's thesis it would be helpful to know if your degree is in urban design or landscape architecture.

I suggest you narrow your focus to a particular kind of open green space within an urban context, as there are many different kinds and they perform differently for the people who inhabit their surroundings than for those who actually go into them and use them.

Open green space can be as different as Central Park  and Grammercy Park in New York.  

Central park was designed to resemble a natural landscape and is of immense size in order to accommodate automotive traffic, equestrian traffic, pedestrians, skiing and skating in winter, jogging, croquet, lawn bowls and boating in summer, organised sport like baseball football and foot races, dog walking, music concerts, botanical gardening, restaurants, etc.  It also contains infrastructure:  a reservoir for the city drinking water system, a weather observation station, channelled and depressed through-roads for cross town vehicular traffic, an art museum, a music pavilion, and a zoo. Mt Sinai Hospital was located at the edge of Central Park in the days before antibiotics, so that the fresh air around the park would benefit tuberculosis patients.  

Grammercy Park in New york, is a small traditional landscape garden in the middle of a residential square and is both fenced off and gated so that only residents of the square can use it, usually not more than a few at a time.

You can see that the health benefits differ depending on the size of the park and the use to which it is put.  You can also see that the way the park is engaged by the people living next to it will be hugely different: some people on Fifth Avenue or Central Park West in New York never enter the park at all but just look at a distant view it from their windows, and this may have health benefits in itself.  Grammercy Park residents probably don't even bother looking at the garden in the middle of the square, which isn't very impressive, but only 'use' it by entering it for an exclusive private stroll, which itself is a form of exercise.  Finally, Central Park has a huge catchment of users, with people coming from all over the New York metropolitan area as well as all over the world just to be there, whereas no one can use Grammercy park unless they are a guest of a resident.

Central Park and Grammercy Park are two extremes, and you could probably write your thesis just on them without even visiting them because they are so well known and documented.

You will know of similar examples around Melbourne.  Pick a size range that you can cover, perhaps the smaller the better, so you can make sufficient detailed observations with the time allowed.  If you are doing this as a research topic, you may wish to document users or interview them, as well as making inquiries among those who have designed and maintained the park about their objectives in doing so.

Hazel if your interest is more in public health, you may have to set parameters for the performance of a particular kind of park with respect to the surrounding residents....there may be existing research into how adjacent green space of a certain size affects longevity, the quality of health, level of obesity, etc which would be more statistical but may be your interest if design and function are not.

Hi Stephen Fargo, firstly thank a lot for your suggestion. I am an architecture student. Due to limitation of time for research, talking generally about public space can be too broad and challenging topic. As you have mentioned above i should identify what is main focus. So should i go with investigating what a guideline to improve the design of green public space for public health in residential areas in context of climate change or urban heat island?

best regards,

Hazel

Perhaps this is a topic for your lecturer or thesis advisor.  I would just say limit the scale and type of public open green space to something you can easily measure and get research about, and if your interest is bioclimatic architecture you should probably research the extent to which green space provide enhanced local cooling in hot weather which reduces cooling load on buildings, perhaps enhanced oxygen levels, psychological benefits from views of green space and see if you can do a quantitative as well as quantitative assessment.

It sounds very interesting. Many thanks for suggesting this idea!