This article discusses medicalized language in design to force healthiness in design to revitalize the idea of being green. It introduces urban renewal project in NY City 'High Lane' and 'Delancey Underground'.
High lane success as a public, meeting space where people connect and itself harmonize with urban fitting.
The Delancey Underground urges us to reclaim these old, “sick” places as “healthy” and valuable, to see their potential as innovative, “curative” public spaces.
Design can persuade us to make choices which are beneficial to our health. But this isn’t about the curative properties of ‘good’ design, it’s more about the negative qualities of apathetic design. If I use, pass through, live or work in a space where the designers were more like apathetic planners, it sends a message that makes me want to put less effort into bettering myself. After all, if the designers didn’t really care about how much enjoyment I would get out of a space, they didn’t care about me. And if they don’t care about me, why should I care about myself? Putting effort into a space, into a city, and drawing attention and focus towards those spaces does the opposite, if designed to dissuade those negative behaviors. If using the stairs is more pleasant than an elevator then I will walk to my office instead. The message conveyed by anonymous designers who will likely never meet me, who still took the time to think about my experience with a space is a message that says I matter and that I am worth caring about. And suddenly, I have a reason to care *for* myself. The curative property comes in caring about a space and the people who use it.
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