Professors in Three Disciplines Plan Major New Urban Research Project

Faculty members in three major fields have begun talks aimed at creating significant new Harvard research into urban problems. The fundamental thrust of this research would be the relation of urban design to all aspects of physical and mental health.

The three parts of the University participating in the talks are the Graduate School of Design, the division of Engineering and Applied Physics, and the School of Public Health.

"We want to increase our knowledge about the ways physical environment affects mental and physical health," said one man close to the discussions. "What we need is greater scientific information about what is now intuitive."

Though the talks have been continuing for more than six months, they are still described in "very preliminary stages." The eventual hope is to create either a large-scale "environmental health project" or an Environmental health Center. Either of these would be a long-range committment, expected to sponsor research for years to come.

Exactly what the project will do is still an unresolved problem. "There are lots of suggestions, but they haven't been shaken down yet," one man said. However, according to another source there is a possibility that "various experimental environments" would be created and then evaluated for their effects on either physical or mental health.

Problems

In some circles, a beginning of the project--or at least an announcement--had been expected last winter. But major problems have developed since.

For example, the project's research may not be limited to environmental effects on health. "I wouldn't restrict the center to only the health aspects. I don't think that the center would do only things that all three schools are concerned with ... there may be activities that only concern two of the schools directly," one man said. "Actually, the boundaries of research haven't been drawn yet."

Another problem seen to be tailoring the thrust of research to attract Faculty manpower. "We have got to answer the questions, 'What can Harvard do?' and 'What's the natural direction for it to go?' The Faculty doesn't get pushed around in the direction of its research," one participant in the discussions explained.