Wildness and Wellbeing Nature, Neuroscience, and Urban Design

"This important and timely book rigorously draws together evidence from a wide range of disciplines to reveal the benefits of urban nature for human mental health and wellbeing. Considering the growing burden of mental ill-health globally, Wildness and Wellbeing convincingly makes the case for everyday urban nature beyond park provision, to rethink cities as places where diverse species are invited to flourish in every possible nook and cranny, no matter how awkward. Essential reading in troubling times."
– Dr Cecily Maller, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University, Australia

"In this new book, Zoe Myers takes on the challenging task of integrating insights from diverse disciplines to explore evidence behind the myriad links between urban nature, mental health and urban design. Wildness and Wellbeing offers valuable insights for both those new to the field, and experienced practitioners keen to engage with tensions in understanding how and why different people respond to nature in the ways they do, and opportunities for addressing this complexity through design."
– Dr Sarah Bell, European Centre for Environment and Human Health, and University of Exeter Medical School, U.K.

"Zoe Myers has tackled a subject that is long overdue – the need to re-wild urban places to better support our mental health and wellbeing. In addition to putting forth reams of compelling evidence, Myers offers sound and practical design principles and strategies to give people immediate, incidental, and incremental access to urban nature, the key to wellbeing in the city."
– Claire Latané, Ecological Designer and Assistant Professor, Landscape Architecture, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona