Did you know that there is an incredibly close correlation between the rise of obesity around the globe and human stress levels over the past 60+ years? Stress is also closely linked to increased social media pressures.

And if you did know that, did you know that exposing humans to greenery, quickly decreases stress and blood pressure?

So it would not be illogical to deduce that increasing greenery in urban areas will decrease obesity in a very close correlation.

This has enormous implications for healthcare in NZ. Preventative medicine is far more effective than curative treatments and far cheaper!

The Government and politicians tend to govern the policies for healthcare and architects tend to govern the design of our urban spaces. This is where things start to fall apart.

We once had a prominent architect tell us that he did not like “green bling” on buildings. But, the science is incontrovertible, greenery on our urban buildings,  is not “green bling”, it is an essential element of a healthy, resilient and sustainable urban environment.

How do we ensure that our architects and developers enforce greenery in buildings?

Is it time that architects were governed by the healthcare regulators?

Perhaps, solving obesity is as simple as enforcing corridors of vegetation in our urban areas?  If so, Hanging Gardens is ready for the challenge!