ABSTRACT
The built environment-whether individual buildings, entire neighborhoods, cities, or regions of the world-deeply affects the functioning and health of the people who occupy it. In cities, the urban penalty gradually reversed, with less and less urban mortality and eventual equalization of mortality compared to rural areas. The cholera epidemics were stopped, and tuberculosis spread was curtailed. Certainly socioeconomic factors play a role, with the inner city tending to lack adequate health care to treat the illnesses. The built environment can also indirectly affect the immune system and health through its impact on the brain. One might postulate, based upon the knowledge of how the brain's stress and attention centers work, that the spaces allowed the residents to temporarily escape from stress and move back along the inverted U-shaped curve to a more optimal level of functioning. Clearly, features of the built environment that create such conditions could trigger the stress response in humans in a similar manner.
