This is an ongoing body of work arising out of our research into sociallly responsible design, urban futures and health. We undertook a Scientific Review of the relationship between the Environment and Mental Wellbeing for the UK governments Foresight Programme on Mental Heath and Mental Capital. This involved a systematic review of over 2000 studies and a detailed analysis of over 250 papers. We went on to look at the effect of the environment on older people's well-being, making recommendations for future interventions. This is published by Foresight and in Cooper R, Boyko C & Codinhoto R. (2009) The effect of the physical environment on mental wellbeing in Mental Capital and Well Being, Cooper C L, Field J, Goswami U, Jenkins R, Sahakian B (pp 967-1006). London: Wiley- Blackwell.
Further work in this area has been on the relationship between design and non communicable diseases (NCD's) as part of the World Economic Forum GAC on NCD's. this will be publishes in September 2011 as part of the UN conference on NCD's.
Rachel Cooper is also working with Professor Elizabeth Burton on a edited Handbook of Environment and Well-being to be published by Wiley Blackwell in 2013