Cities worldwide are facing a deepening crisis as densification and verticalisation reshape urban spaces, often at a cost of surging physical and mental health challenges. In Three-Dimensional (3D) urban environments with multi-layered developments, underground and elevated spaces, and vertical infrastructures, anxiety, dementia, disorientation, and isolation increasingly threaten billions of city dwellers. Ageing populations, migration growth, and the needs of neurodiverse groups further amplify these concerns. Yet, many cities underestimate the role of public well-being in urban design, leaving a critical gap in creating healthy, engaging cities for all.

Hong Kong – a city with super-high density and spatial complexity – stands as both a microcosm of this crisis and a testing ground for solutions. Its intricate 3D street networks and diverse demographics offer a vantage point for demystifying how dense urban environments shape well-being. This research applies interdisciplinary methods – such as computer vision, virtual reality, and neuroscientific sensing techniques (mobile eye-tracking, EEG, EDA, fMRI)– to decode how city-and eye-level environmental factors shape cognition, behaviour, and emotions.

Leveraging Hong Kong as a prime example will provide scalable and actionable insights for dense Western and global cities to build 3D spatial systems that are neuro-friendly. It will inform evidence-based design and technologies for vulnerable individuals, placing inclusivity at the core of future urban competitiveness.