Mansaray Zirabamuzale, Shirah; (2025) Sustainable, Responsible and Inclusive Innovation for Mental Health: How interactions between the built environment, space and mental health policy influence mental health service delivery in the United Kingdom and Uganda. Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Architecture should be an act that liberates users both physically and mentally. With over 90% of our time spent within a building or built environment, therapeutic environments should be the norm. Instead, what currently pervades architectural practices and space are confining spaces, legislative encumbrance and power imbalances. This thesis investigates the role of sustainable, responsible, and inclusive innovation, policy, and infrastructure in the UK and Uganda in advancing user-centric building design, wellbeing spaces and addressing the wicked problem of mental health infrastructures. The thesis approaches this investigation by developing and then examining how a multidisciplinary and interdisciplinary approach to innovation could improve architecture, well-being and agency. Focusing on current infrastructure and policy design frameworks and advancing the notion of Sustainable, Responsible and Inclusive Innovation for Mental Health (SRII4MH), this thesis is a critical convergence of innovation systems thinking, mental health, architecture and public policy. Through the SRII4MH framework, the thesis identifies power imbalances in innovation, mental health infrastructure, policy design, and knowledge creation amongst funders, knowledge actors, and health practitioners. The thesis untangles the nexus between space, innovation and mental wellbeing whilst critiquing the knowledge systems that come together around this nexus. The main research question for the study was “How has the interaction between the built environment, space, and mental health policy influenced mental health service delivery in the UK and Uganda?”. The study utilised knowledge systems to explore the influences of postcoloniality, knowledge creation and knowledge extractivism. A case study methodology was deployed, including sites in Uganda and the UK to facilitate a contextual and in-depth examination of the multi-faceted systems of innovations and architecture practices across sites and countries in order to respond to the research questions. Qualitative research methods were adopted which included questionnaire-led interviews, interdisciplinary literature reviews and observations. Empirical data from these methods were analysed through a tailored set of analytical frameworks, including Lefebvre’s architectural model. The empirical investigation provides a novel method for bridging Lefebvre’s model and the multi-dimensional SRII4MH innovation framework in order to advance inclusion and agency in infrastructure design. Findings evidence the potential of a multi-dimensional approach to innovation in advancing user-centric wellbeing infrastructures that encompass access to nature, natural built environments, biophilic design, restorative environments, and environmental psychology. The thesis concludes by providing policy recommendations for liberating spaces.

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