Where Architecture meets Life!

Now with spending 98% of our lives indoors with the current global health requirement, it is time to ponder on how much architecture does really impact our lives and personality. This post explores my study on how architecture impacts our thinking, our mental and physical well being and our emotions.

Being an architecture student first and then a professional architect, studying this topic has not only helped me in being more mindful in the designs I put forward, but also be able to explain and relate the design to the client better.

A new field of research, Architectural Psychology has opened up more ways to design and planning and effects of spaces on people.

This space explores the different designs around the world that send a positive impact to the users and also shatters boundaries with their design potential. Individual differences are bound to exist among people, so proper architectural implementation becomes necessary to meet everyone’s psychological desires. Hence, there is a definite relationship between architecture and psychology. It is said that “architecture is the third skin” of the human body, since the first skin is the real skin, which acts as the outer envelop and the filter of the body, then the clothes that act as the second skin, which is also considered as an insulation and filter. “So people’s third skin would be the next layer out -usually the building they are in,”( Elyacoubi, 1999. ) which performs as the surrounded man-made environment.

“A house can have integrity, just like a person,' said Roark, 'and just as seldom.”

― Ayn Rand, The Fountainhead

Whether we like a place or not depends on how we perceive it’s design elements, the illumination, materials and furnishing or if the place is similar to any previous ambience we are comfortable in. If we are not comfortable with the environment at some place, we are not at ease. For instance, a prison cannot have bright and vibrant colors simply because it is not meant to be enticing. Likewise an old age home should be soothing and calm where senior citizens feel at home,therefore, the architect works on the design scheme by introducing soft colors with some cooling effect, soft materials and patient- friendly features, a healing garden, a space for them to gather, private rooms, taking in the consideration of temperature for their healthy well being.

According to the study by Walid Abdel Moneim Abdel Kader, there are five senses that are gateways to the human mind. “The five senses are each gateways of healing. The eyes which give us sight are gateway to color healing; the ears which give us hearing are a gateway for music therapy; the sense of touch lends itself to massage; the sense of smell to aromatherapy and the sense of taste to our diet.”(Gimbel, 1993.)

The Visual Sense : The Effect of Light

The Effect of Color

The Auditory Sense

The Effect of Noise

The Smell Sense

The Touch Sense (The Skin)

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IMPACT ON HEALTH

Ill-conceived and inferior architecture, combined with other factors, can promote stress, encourage exhaustion, induce psychosomatic symptoms and even promote physical discomfort. Apart from pleasant indoor climate, light, plants, materials also play a role in well being and health.

SECURITY

If a structure cannot help in induce sense of security among its users, it automatically becomes a space used less and less often by upfront citizens, thus attracting crime and vandalism.

PERSONALITY AND PERCEPTION

In a positive sense,spaces can contribute to strengthening our perception of self esteem and satisfaction. Housing and social policy researcher Danny Friedman sees correlations between poor housing conditions/neighborhoods and individuals’ health, well-being, likelihood of criminality, and educational attainment.

Spacial structures have a way to promote certain pattern of behavior. If architecture promotes a positive and emotional attachment to places and strengthen a sense of responsibility, such consequences can be intercepted.

All this just arises questions of How? Why?

In the upcoming posts, we seek to tackle such questions and study our everyday places and new ones about their impact on us and how it affects us. Understanding the way architecture impacts us might just help us to relate to our surroundings better.

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References:

• https://medium.com/@srkshivangi.01/impact-of-architecture-on-human-psychology-f0b637714603#:~:text=An%20architect%20can%20control%20human,is%20natural%20or%20man%2Dmade.

• https://medium.com/archilyse/1-the-influence-of-architecture-on-our-psyche-f183a6732708