HOW URBAN ARCHITECTURE INFLUENCES HEALTH: THE PAKARA-MODELL

  • Vollmer, T. C., Koppen, G. & Kohler, K. (2020). Wie Stadtarchitektur Gesundheit beeinflusst: Das PAKARA-Modell. Bundesgesundheitsblatt, 63(8), 972-978. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00103-020-03188-7
  • Link to article

The monthly magazine ‘Federal Health Bulletin – Health Research – Health protection’ covers all issues and areas that are dealt with by the public health system and national health policy. The aim is, on the one hand, to keep abreast of important developments in basic research and, on the other hand, to provide information on concrete measures for health protection, on concepts of prevention, risk prevention and health promotion. In the special issue ‘Stadt und Gesundheit’ (City and Health) Vollmer et al. present new scientific findings on the effects of architecture on health and well-being in cities from the perspective of architectural psychology and place them in the context of well-known premonitions and assessments by experts in urban planning. The authors’ criticism of a decades-long unhealthy separation of disciplines arises from the connection of these realities: “Humankind is in constant interaction with the environment. If one appropriates, it has a positive effect on its health and well-being. To promote appropriation, urban architecture must respond to human needs. The PAKARA model illustrates the dynamic interaction of these needs with urban architecture, distinguishing three sectors: preventive, curative and rehabilitative architecture. In addition to the model, the article explains three central needs that, influenced by urban architecture, can lead to health-promoting saturation or health-damaging over- or undersaturation: stimulation, identification and privacy. Conclusively, it is shown that the future challenge is to expand close interdisciplinary cooperation against the background of a drastic increase in the global urban population and an associated complexity of needs-oriented design. The needs of the individual – even if they contradict each other and change over the course of a lifetime – are the driving motor behind the health of an entire community. Urban architecture has the potential to keep this motor running, or, destroy it.” (from the original; Vollmer TC et al., 2020)