“What made you choose architecture?” is the most common question I get when I talk about completing my degree. I am not sure if it is because of the lack of circular glasses, the curly hair, the fact that I am a female or a combination thereof. Often times I wonder this myself as well. Constantly, I am asking myself the purpose for pursuing such a demanding degree and profession with mediocre benefits. Then I look at the work I am doing. The realization of the profession being in the service and sales industries never truly crossed my mind. The understanding of how design can impact a community, the power the environment has on the psyche and the ability to create spaces for people to thrive. To utilize local knowledge to improve individualized experiences and decolonize the United States.
I am of the opinion we are facing the last few generations of our kind. I do not mean this to be ominous but rather I believe this to be an opportunity to use the power of design to create healthy spaces for minority children. I believe with our last generations we can use the power of design to fit the needs of the issues of the youth through place -based design with heavy attention to WELL design. This is in order to design healthier and safer communities without fear forwards racism, diabetes, social inequality, gender inequity, environmental health issues.
Modern architecture cannot fully address the issue of developing spaces for people where they can thrive in. There are environments which can be designed to be ‘healthy,’ a term we will discuss later. However, there are historical, cultural, sociological and economic factors which need to be addressed in order to the buttress the notion of developing safe spaces where people are able to thrive and further develop their personal interests. By placing attention on the youth, as well as the next generation of parents, we have the capability to design a society where social issues no longer include the primary matters faced within the last two hundred years. Instead, spaces can be considered healing spaces while paying direct attention to the culture and demographic on hand.
The power of the space and its ability to have healing effects has been researched, analyzed and argued by scientists and designers alike. Bond argues those who live in cities are at higher risk of depression, anxiety and other mental illnesses. In the end of the article, Bond looks for green space as how it can improve city life, the importance of visually enriching public places. Therefore, it would behoove us to not limit the idea of ‘healing spaces’ to simply hospitals. There is no doubt healing spaces are left to medical institutions just as psychological impact can be affected by one’s environments. There appears to be a distinct connection between space and the psychology of the human mind.
The term ‘healthy spaces’ are defined by the quantification of space and the measurable levels of health as defined by the urban planning perspective. These include ways in which advocates, architects and politicians can implement simple strategies to drastically increase the need for urban health improvements. In his essay, The Time of the Environment, Pallasmaa refers to a fellow researcher, Aalto who understood the importance of design in healing spaces and how they can address the healing and well- being of the patient. This is important when the man is at his weakest point. The need for healthy spaces on the other hand should not be only realized when people are unhealthy but should be a standard maintained and improved along to create environments of wellness.
The conversation of human psychological need and aesthetics are often misunderstood. Environments which are aesthetically pleasing but nonfunctional are not the objective just as functional buildings without aesthetics are not the objective. It is the levels of health and safety which are of importance; the importance of aesthetics is needed as well but come secondary to the notion of well and healthy spaces. For instance, when social housing is demolished it is not because they are not aesthetically pleasing or beautiful, but because they are a threat to the safety and health of human life. Thus, unsafe neighborhoods and buildings are a threat to human life and the quality of human life.
A healthy lifestyle comprises of the choices one makes towards food, fashion, appearance, housing, work patterns, leisure, drinking, smoking, personal hygiene, and coping patterns. Choices are habitus; thus, they are limited to what the person believes is realistic for their sociological and economic standards and limitations. Risk factors include the following: family, school, social networks and neighborhood. More risks in the environment are directly proportional to the variety of negative outcomes for one’s health.
By understanding this, the ability to significantly mitigate social and environmental risk factors is achievable. Within the nine-hundred most disadvantaged neighborhoods in the United States, ninety-nine percent are in cities. While targeting inner cities and focusing on the schools and areas with higher levels of younger people, more of an impact can me made if the beneficiaries are the young people living in these spaces. People who live in the largest cities in the Unites States (the top one hundred) have twice as many violence and murder rates; infant mortality rate is twenty -five percent higher than the United States average.
There are ways in which this can be combatted. In order to trigger the environments to benefit ourselves, research on WELL was conducted. The primary resulting requirements for positive environmental stimulation and benefits was centered around biophilia. The use of WELL design is the “the experience of nature or nature-derived patterns can improve experience, mood and happiness,” with the intent to support and promote the emotional and psychological well-being. This can be done through wither interior or exterior design in regards to the natural or built environment. WELL has dedicated standards and requirements to promote indoor and landscape biophilic rates.
It should be mentioned that there is also the idea of the Disease Prevention Theory. This is a case where individuals believe their health can be impacted and that there can be serious consequences when one does not abide to such standards. If this theory is taken into action, it would be beneficial to truly emphasize the importance of media, social influences and propaganda to pursue people into taking positive action. Without this the effort to improve living standards amongst our use would be insignificant.
Happiness is not a result of one’s environment nor can the environment, natural or built be the single contributing factor to developing happiness or any other form of psychological response. The concepts which are proposed are basic fundamental improvements with the aim to improve the happiness in minority children within the United States. Nevertheless, there are large contributing factors to what can make people respond emotionally. It should not be overlooked that other people have the largest influence on the individual. Neighborhoods, societies, culture, etc., all are determining factors on what one considers aesthetically pleasing, what one considers acceptable and how to respond to such circumstances.
Designers can only design spaces for that specific culture and society in the attempt to appease the masses of said community; there is not one design which will be universal but rather many which may assist in the mitigation of sociological issues. To target those issues there is no longer a need for a generic or generalized design but must return to a more specified and culturally sensitive approach.
With this in mind, design consultants should be more integrated into the design process- not only the designer nor the architect but a researcher who has specific knowledge on the topic of design and build as well as the location. This would possibly come in to coalition with the term “placemaking” where towns and cities are working from the ground up to integrate design and the arts into architectural form. In conjunction with this and the understanding of how design can impact the human psyche, we can encourage upcoming generations to live healthier and safer lifestyles.
BOOKS, ARTICLES AND TALKS OF SCHOLARLY RESEARCH
1. Healing environments: places and settings, needs and responses: a report of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health conference, February 10-12, 1994, Portland, Oregon / by Jay Greene.
2. Bond, Michael. “Future - The Hidden Ways That Architecture Affects How You Feel.” BBC, BBC, 6 June 2017, www.bbc.com/future/story/20170605-the-psychology-behind-your-citys-design?ocid=ww.social.link.email.
3. Building American public health: urban planning, architecture, and the quest for better health in the United States / Russell Lopez.
4. Environment, health, and sustainable development / Aleya Abdel-Hadi, Mostafa K. Tolba, Salah Soliman, editors.
5. Unhealthy places: the ecology of risk in the urban landscape / Kevin Fitzpatrick and Mark LaGory.
6. Urban health: readings in the social, built, and physical environments of U.S. cities / edited by H. Patricia Hynes and Russ Lopez.
7. Healthy urban planning: a WHO guide to planning for people / Hugh Barton and Catherine Tsourou.
8. Toward the healthy city: people, places, and the politics of urban planning / Jason Corburn. Corburn, Jason.
9. Aesthetics, well-being and health: essays within architecture and environmental aesthetics / edited by Birgit Cold.
10. Wendell Burnette: dialogues in space / edited by Oscar Riera Ojeda; foreword by Tod Williams and Billie Tsien; introduction by Juhani Pallasmaa; essay by Robert McCarter; epilogue by Brian MacKay-Lyons. Riera Ojeda, Oscar
11. Burnette studio/residence / Wendell Burnette; edited by Oscar Riera Ojeda; introduction by Marwan Al-Sayed. Burnette, Wendell.
12. Recrafted: interpretations of craft in contemporary architecture and interiors / Marc Kristal.
13. Birren, Faber. Color Psychology and Color Therapy; A Factual Study of The Influence of Color on Human Life, Hauraki Publishing, 2016. ProQuest eBook Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/asulib-ebooks/detail.action?docID=4809555.
Created from asulib-ebooks on 2019-10-10 15:04:13.
14. Ballas, Dimitris, and Mark Tranmer. "Happy People or Happy Places? A Multilevel Modeling Approach to the Analysis of Happiness and Well-Being." International Regional Science Review 35.1 (2012): 70-102. Web.
15. “International WELL Building Institute.” WELL, Sept. 2017, www.wellcertified.com/.
16. Zingoni, Millagros. “Mind the Space.” 14 Sept. 2019, Tempe, Design School South 15.
17. Cherry, Kendra. “Can Color Affect Your Mood and Behavior?” Verywell Mind, Verywell Mind, 17 July 2019, www.verywellmind.com/color-psychology-2795824.
18. Creating Change through Arts, Culture, and Equitable Development: A Policy and Practice Primer by Kalima Rose Milly Hawk Daniel Jeremy Liu https://www.policylink.org/resources-tools/equity-manifesto
19. Hejduk, Renata. “Bodies, Identity, Space, Freedom” Class. Class, 31 Oct. 2019, Tempe, Design South 15.
20. Miranda, Carolina. “How the Art of Social Practice Is Changing the World, One Row House At.” ARTNews, 2018, How the Art of Social Practice Is Changing the World, One Row House at.
21. “NATIVE AMERICAN CREATIVE PLACEMAKING.” HAC, Jan. 2018, www.ruralhome.org/storage/documents/publications/rrreports/rrr-native-placemaking.pdf.
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