LA+ Vitality

This issue of LA+ explores the notion of vitality as a proxy for the health of all things, and explores how design can improve the vitality of people, cities, systems, and landscapes.

---

Vitality is liveliness, to be alive.
To be alive is to have the ability to harvest energy for movement,
growth, and self-replication. But without health, vitality is just
mechanistic. In this issue of LA+ we explore the notion of vitality as a
proxy for the health of all things. We explore how design can improve
the vitality of people, cities, systems, and landscapes.


Articles include:

- Sara Jensen-Carr explores the intertwined epidemiology of ecosystems, cities, and human bodies.

-
Through the intimate case study of a 15th century Roman noblewoman,
historian Mirka Benes reveals the role of gardens in maintaining
physical and mental health in the early modern era.

- Design anthropologist Chuan Hao Chen reflects on vitality through the metaphor of the medical emergency.

- Experimental psychologist Colin Ellard explores questions about the roots of our perceptions of life and agency.

- Urban designer Julian Bolleter shines a light on the practice of placemaking in contemporary Dubai.

-
Public health scientists Billie Giles Corti, Jonathan Arundel, and Lucy
Gunn explain why urban design is important in creating livable cities.

-
Landscape architect Clay Gruber captures a case study of the potential
for renewal of a rural American landscape drained of socio-economic
vitality.

- Designer Colin Curley surveys the beautiful ugliness of Newtown Creek, New York's most-polluted waterway.

-
Biodiversity conservation scientist Andrew Gonzalez explains his
multi-year research into designing a comprehensive and practicable green
network for the city of Montreal and its hinterlands.

- Landscape architect Jake Boswell offers a wide-ranging rumination on ecology and aesthetics.

-
Psychiatrist and urban health scholar Mindy Thompson Fullilove reflects
upon the vitality of main streets in small-town America.

-
Philosopher Mark Kingwell takes on artificial intelligence in a series
of provocative propositions dealing with notions of life and vitality.

-
Architect and urban designer Christopher Marcinkoski considers Tokyo's
landscape future in the face of significant population decline.

-
Also includes interviews with the celebrated author of Vibrant Matter,
Jane Bennett, MASS Design Group's Sierra Bainbridge, and The Nature
Conservancy's lead scientist for global cities Rob MacDonald.