The built environment impacts hugely on the quality of our lives – and by extension on our health and wellbeing. Karen Anderson argues that the goal of architecture and urban planning should be to improve wellbeing.
“Architecture is an art when one consciously or unconsciously creates aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere, and when this environment produces wellbeing.”
Luis Barragan was awarded the second Pritzker Prize for Architecture 1980.
Barragan, Mexico’s most famous modern architect, rejected functionalism and championed ‘emotional architecture’ that ‘expressed serenity’. He believed that architecture, as a public art, must create a sense of well-being. It is essential that we make wellbeing a central goal of all design in the built environment. We must look at the world through the lens of care and respect, not just style, constructional pragmatics, and short-term economics if we are going to tackle our future challenges and guide the next generation.
Our wellbeing is affected by our surroundings, including buildings, public spaces, and infrastructure. One can’t help but feel anxious about navigating a poorly lit underpass or car park, or angst at the thought of a poorly designed A&E reception for trauma patients, or the pleasure of the sun flooding into a space. Human experience and opportunities to connect to nature and the outdoors should be at the core of all design decisions, from city planning to house design. This will improve our lives and health.
For decades, urban planners from Scotland have praised Jan Gehl’s pioneering urban design. He combined his policy with urban planning to transform Copenhagen into a city that is a magnet for cyclists. Residents now spend an average of four hours per week cycling, with five times the number of cars. The 2010 Scottish Government established policy to achieve pedestrian and cyclist-friendly design in new residential areas, but it is only in the pandemic that most cities have actively encouraged cycling by ‘retrofitting’ our car-dominated streets. This is very much a work in progress, but it sits alongside other vital initiatives to connect our homes and offices to national walking and cycle routes, local facilities, public transport and to the creation of ‘20-minute neighbourhoods’; all making a built environment of less traffic and pollution, more walking, and healthier, lower carbon lives.
Where once the shops and local high streets played a significant role in our social lives (particularly for the young and old) we now should actively design spaces focussed on bringing people together: attractive circulation areas with seating and gathering points, rather than corridors, in a research establishment; or shared ‘mini allotments’ with raised growing beds in new housing. Ideas sparked off colleagues in a casual setting have changed the world; those who grow food as a hobby are 3.5 times more likely to eat their ‘5 a day’ and get their required vitamin D. Such ‘designed in’ social facilities can also contribute to more supportive behaviour and inclusion and can respond creatively to our aging and changing demographics.
We aim to design for net zero when it comes to new construction using systems such as PassivhausIt is important not to focus only on the technical performance and appearance of our future buildings. If we are to create our own versions of Baragan’s ‘aesthetic emotion in the atmosphere’ we need to eschew the ‘standard layout’ in housing and all buildings and design for that view to the far hills or near garden, make spaces that inspire and where the sun shines into a bright sitting space or sheltered courtyard.
There is so much that is possible and lots to gain, and in the context of responsible use of the planet’s resources in the future, we cannot afford to miss opportunities to invest in the creative potential of good design to maximise the collateral well-being benefits it can create.
- Karen Anderson, FRSE, is a visiting professor at Scott Sutherland School of Architecture and the Built Environment
