About
Shaping the psychology of cities. Sharing the knowledge to build healthier urban futures.
The Centre for Urban Psychology (CUP) is an international centre providing specialist knowledge and support to help cities and city systems become healthier and more human-centred urban design and environments. The centre aims to provide resources, education and technical assistance that stimulate debate and activity that capture new thinking around an emerging field of urban psychology and its enormous potential to help people live better lives in cities.
As urban populations continue to grow and cities become more complex, CUP responds to a critical global need: to place human psychology at the heart of how cities are planned, designed, governed, and experienced.
Urban psychology emerges from the recognition that cities are not only physical systems, but psychological environments that influence how people think, feel, relate, and live their everyday lives. CUP advances this emerging field by generating rigorous, interdisciplinary, and policy-relevant knowledge that helps cities better support human flourishing.
What Is Urban Psychology?
Urban psychology explores the relationship between people and urban environments—examining how the design, structure, governance, and lived conditions of cities shape human behaviour, emotion, cognition, social interaction, and well-being.
Situated at the intersection of urban planning, design, psychology, and behavioural sciences, urban psychology provides evidence-based insights that inform healthier, more inclusive, and more resilient urban environments. CUP bridges these disciplines to translate research into practice, supporting cities, institutions, and communities to make better decisions grounded in an understanding of human experience.
Our Work and Focus Areas
CUP’s work is applied, interdisciplinary, and policy-driven. We recognise that truly sustainable and human-centred cities require not only innovative design and infrastructure, but also a deep understanding of how people experience and respond to urban life.
Our research and practice focus on enabling just, healthy, and resilient cities through three core domains:
- Urban Mental Health & Well-being: Investigating the psychological impact of urban environments and designing strategies for healthier, more supportive cities.
- Behavioural Urbanism: Understanding how urban design influences behaviour, decision-making, and social interactions.
- Resilient & Inclusive Urban Futures: Exploring how cities can become more adaptive, equitable, and responsive to diverse human needs in the face of social, environmental, and economic change.
Through these areas, CUP generates integrative and actionable insights that support urban transformation across policy, planning, design, and governance.
