Recipes for Urban Happiness

"The study and practical application of Urban Design now reaches beyond codebooks and illustrations of successful (and unsuccessful) projects for urban quarters, whole towns and city regions. The need to make places more equitable, healthy, and supportive of local economic development requires a deeper understanding of the perspectives and needs of all those who will experience that place. Here, Jenny Donovan gives deeper guidance to all - the professional designer, the citizens, and their politicians – quarrying her experience of the moral and economic imperative to create places that nurture rather than diminish. The outlining of good and bad ‘experience diets’ provides the necessarily broad net for catching the breadth of issues to be considered. Donovan concedes that ‘effective healthcare, justice and educational systems and a fair housing system are self-evidently also essential prerequisites’ for making good places. But do not be deceived by this – her illustrations and case study references are international and draw upon her first-hand experience in troubled urban environments such as Afghanistan. Her work with UN-Habitat has provided a perspective of unique span, great humanity and wisdom."

David Lock, CBE MRTPI, Founder of David Lock Associates planners and urban design consultants (Milton Keynes and Melbourne, Australia); former Chief Planning Adviser to the Department of the Environment (UK); and Ebenezer Howard Medallist 2023

"In a rapidly changing and often unpredictable world, the issues of climate change, demographic change, the rise in non-communicable diseases and a diminishing stock of resources demand our urgent attention and action. As global populations increasingly gather in towns and cities, it is apparent that for many of us, our urban surroundings are ill-equipped to help us rise to those challenges. As this book reminds us, if we are to meet these challenges, we must understand how our surroundings help us meet our needs, protect and enhance the nurturing influences and mitigate against the toxic. This book adds to this critical discussion by reminding us of the importance of designing for our fundamental biological and psychological needs. It focuses on the overlap between the built, social and administrative environment and invites us all to do our bit. It seeks to point to how we can create built and social surroundings that are both quantitively adequate and qualitatively helpful, freeing us from the shackles of fear and inviting us all to share and enjoy our surroundings. Fundamentally, it is a book that offers hope and shows how to harness it and manifest it into built form."

Sheree Vertigan, AM, CEO, Chairperson and Director of the Cradle Coast Authority (Tasmania), member of the University of Tasmania Council