Nature’s prescription : making room for green spaces in highly dense cities to combat urban stress

Abstract

Continuous urban growth and sprawling city development in the outskirts of Metro Manila means less and less areas to develop and thus the city is left with few open green spaces. Despite of being the nation’s major center for commerce and entertainment, the life’s value predominantly decreases. Causing a lot of problems on how the people respond to everyday life around, making them more stressed and deprived to the point that Metro manila is now one of the top 10 most stressful cities to live in the world.

The association between urban green space and well-being has been extensively studied and practiced in many parts of the world. However, in developing countries such as Philippines, there are few examples of such studies. This research looks at the effects of urban densification on green space and its planning. The researcher identified the problems, challenges, and strategies of urban green space planning during densification processes. Furthermore, this research also investigated the effect of urban green spaces in relation to public health. The project adopts the framework of research by design. This method visually shows the design model and the changing of the urban layout.

Findings from this research suggests that while urbanization in Manila is rapid, there are still plenty of available sites which could be worked on and turned into green spaces. Base on the findings, there are underutilized idle lands located in prime areas within the city. Many of these Idle lands are in highly urbanized areas. So, creating urban green spaces on this type of setting, will not only address the problem of urban greening, but also enhance the quality of life within the community.