The Power of Holistic Living

Can a place make you healthier? Having the correct infrastructure can help you lead a well-rounded life

In the mid-20th Century, Glasgow’s town planners looked to Le Corbusier for a blueprint to modern life. To address overcrowding they relocated its tenement-dwelling citizens into tower blocks on the fringe of the Scottish town. The exercise proved to be a colossal failure that resulted in anti-social behaviours and contributed to life expectancies far below the UK average, and the phrase Glasgow Syndrome subsequently came to represent illconceived urban planning that makes communities sick. But by the same token, could well-planned cities make you healthy? Research suggests it can.

As up to 90 percent of our existence is spent indoors, good building design is critical to human well-being, and architects consider greenery – both natural and cultivated, ventilation, light conditions and noise pollution when designing healthy buildings.