HEALING ACUPUNCTURE: HEALTH-GENERATING NEIGHBOURHOODS IN TIMES OF CRISIS

Abstract

In laying the foundation of urban acupuncture, architect and social theorist Marco Casagrande described the city as "a multi-dimensional, energetic and sensory organism, a living ecosystem", on which we can propose almost surgical operations that correspond to what we know as urban acupuncture interventions. Healing acupuncture looks beyond correcting only the urban deficiencies detected in the territory by understanding the chi of the city as a collective energy flow network. The thesis question the conventional western healthcare system whereby healthcare provision is exclusively confined within depressing medical facilities which are alienated from the population, leaving the population vulnerable to uncertainties. If multi storey carparks as the blocked acupoints can be unleashed and serve as the soil for the flourish of a healing interface for sensorial stimulation and healthcare service delegation, then the salutogenic lifestyle will root into the neighbourhood, generates healing sparks in the city organism.