Stress is a well-known phenomenon and something everyone experiences. Urban stress however, stress caused by and in the built environment of urban areas, is less known. Still, quite some research has been done on this topic from the fields of sociology and psychology, but there are not many resources that focus on urban stress - with all its stressors - in general, and the relation between urban stress and urban design is also still thin. Therefore, this thesis focusses on getting a better overview of urban stressors, their relation to the public space and how urban stress can be reduced through urban design. This is mainly done by literature research and design, and the interaction between them, but is also supported by interviews, site analysis, data review and testing.
Stress can be reduced using a direct approach or an indirect approach. The direct approach focusses directly on the stressor, while the indirect approach tries to decrease the negative effect of the stressor, or of the stress itself. The indirect approach can be divided into three sub-approaches: perceived control, pro-social places and restorative environments. Perceived control is important because people experience less stress if they feel like they are in control of their environment. Pro-social places, or social support, is one of the ways to cope with stress. Restoration is recovering from stress and might therefore be the most important indirect approach.
It turns out that the scale of the public space within the scale of the project area of this thesis is very suited for the indirect approaches. An urban design is made for four different locations in Caledonian, London, using these indirect approaches.