Designing Outdoor Spaces for Mental Health: Innovative Evidence-Based Landscaping Approaches

The increased pace of urbanization along with the pressure of an educational system that is increasingly fragmented socially, and growing global mental health issues have contributed to the lack of mental health well-being in people; therefore, the outdoors – especially the urban green and landscaped spaces – have emerged as a non-clinical resource to help improve the quality of mental health. Although there are numerous studies on the relationship between mental health and outdoor environmental design and the connection is evident in the literature, many designers and contractors use evidence based design for the purpose of landscaping (as a preventative measure) instead of functionally, aesthetically, or both. The purpose of this article is to explore the evidence based aspects of designing and implementing the outdoors as a means to restore mental wellness, regulate emotions, and build psychological resiliency. This study is focused only on studies in academic peer-reviewed journals (2023-2025), and combined the results from environmental psychology, landscape architecture, urban planning, and public health. In addition, it identified the physical characteristics of landscape spaces including: cohesiveness, vegetative quality, the degree of exposure to mental health issues, accessibility, and social interaction. Finally, based on the above analysis, the author developed a conceptual model, which links physical design with both psychological response and the interaction between people and their environment. The findings demonstrate that the advantages for mental health arise from landscape design itself, rather than just mental health, and that there should be an association between design choices and human psychological and social processes.