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Healthy City and Spatial Design Lab
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The lab studies how the form of towns and buildings relates to people's health, and applies the findings to design.
AboutAbout the lab
Approaching health-supporting cities and spaces through both science and implementation.
The Healthy City and Spatial Design Lab studies how spaces such as cities and buildings relate to people's health, behavior, and well-being.
Rather than attributing health problems solely to individual lifestyle habits, the lab looks at them from the side of the environment, including housing, urban structure, and connections with society.
The lab moves back and forth between two kinds of work: research that uses epidemiological methods to clarify the relationship between environment and health, and design that applies those findings to the planning, implementation, and evaluation of real spaces.
Key terms
- Well-being
- A good state of being that is fulfilling not only physically but also mentally and in terms of connections with others
- Epidemiology
- The science of studying large numbers of people to clarify the relationship between health or disease and the environment or lifestyle factors that may cause them
- Walkability
- How easy it is to walk in a neighborhood, measured by factors such as street connectivity, sidewalks, and the proximity of destinations like stations and shops
- Frailty
- A state in which physical strength and vitality have declined with age, just short of needing nursing care
NewsLab news
A paper on the relationship between plants around the entrance of the home and depression in older adults was published in Preventive Medicine Reports
A paper on the relationship between housing type and mortality risk in older adults was published in Scientific Reports
A paper on the relationship between community environments and long-term care costs was published in Health & Place
A paper on the relationship between a mall-walking program in a shopping mall and step counts was published in JAMA Network Open
Project Assistant Professor Matsuoka received the Oral Presentation Award at the 82nd Annual Meeting of the Japanese Society of Public Health
ResearchResearch themes
Using geographic information and large-scale longitudinal data, the lab investigates how environmental factors such as nature, climate, mobility, food, society, housing, and the life course relate to mental and physical health and behavior. It then implements the findings in the design of public spaces, buildings, and cities, and evaluates their effects.
*Illustrative imageGreen Space, Waterfronts, Topography, and Health
The lab studies how natural environments such as green space, waterfronts, and slopes relate to health and behavior. Its work has shown, for example, a relationship between the amount and type of green space and depression among older adults, and between living in hilly neighborhoods and frailty.
*Illustrative imageWeather, Climate, and Behavior
The lab analyzes how weather conditions such as rain, temperature, heat, cold, and snow relate to the amount people walk, their going out, and chronic pain. It has shown that step counts drop on rainy and cold days, and that using indoor spaces may soften this effect.
*Illustrative imageWalkability and Physical Activity
Using geographic information, the lab studies how environments that shape mobility, such as street connectivity, sidewalks, and proximity to public transport, relate to physical activity, depression, dementia, and other outcomes. It has also shown that everyday destinations such as commercial facilities are related to how much people walk.
*Illustrative imageFood Environments and Health
Focusing on both proximity to grocery stores and how easy residents perceive shopping to be, the lab analyzes how food environments relate to health using large-scale longitudinal data. It also examines the gap between objective indicators and residents' perceptions.
MembersFaculty
The members of the Healthy City and Spatial Design Lab are faculty, researchers, administrative and secretarial staff, and doctoral students.As of 2026
- Associate ProfessorMasamichi Hanazato
- Project Associate ProfessorYusuke Hara
- Project Assistant ProfessorHiroaki Yoshida
- Project Assistant ProfessorYoko Matsuoka
- Project Assistant ProfessorAiko Eguchi
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Report an errorAbout the images
The top and research theme images are illustrative and were not taken at the lab. They are cropped from Wikimedia Commons images. Cropped CC BY-SA images are provided under the same CC BY-SA license as the original (version shown on each line).
- Top image: “West Thames Park td ( - Rector Street Pedestrian Bridge” Tdorante10 / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
- Green Space, Waterfronts, Topography, and Health: “Ridingleaze Green Space, Lawrence Weston - geograph.org.uk - 5305890” Derek Harper / CC BY-SA 2.0 (cropped)
- Weather, Climate, and Behavior: “Woman walking with umbrella (Unsplash)” Patrick Tomasso impatrickt / CC0 (cropped)
- Walkability and Physical Activity: “Strand street pedestrian crossing 3” Mission for Inner City Cape Town / CC BY 4.0 (cropped)
- Food Environments and Health: “Little neighborhood grocery store Sofia, Bulgaria August 2021” Sharon Hahn Darlin / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Environmental Health Lab): “Mother and Child walking down a path ( )” Ian D. Keating / CC BY 2.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Nutrition and Metabolic Medicine Lab): “CSIRO ScienceImage 4333 Human nutrition research” division, CSIRO / CC BY 3.0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Healthy Living Environment Creation Lab): “Residential neighborhood, Kuringen, Hasselt, 2025” DimiTalen / CC0 (cropped)
- Related lab (Disease Preventive Medicine Lab): “Tanita Health Meter System114” Mr.ち
ゅらさん / CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped)
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