Architecture and health: how does space impact emotional well-being?
Today, August 5, is National Health Day. Our readers have already said that we need psychology to build healthy and pleasant spaces to live, which is why we investigated how space experience really influences the well-being of each person, contributing to the quality of life and the reduction of mental fatigue. That is, the spaces, in addition to working ergonomically, contribute to the physical health of the body and emotional comfort.
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Tips for designing healthier environments, such as prioritizing natural ventilation and lighting, good acoustic performance, specifying materials and furniture, are not great news for professionals in the field, but the way space psychology can affect human behavior and mental health are studies in which not everyone has explored.
In workspaces, for example, we can see that some strategies are critical to the well-being of the team. The versatility of the space and the furniture that can carry different designs give rise to creativity and can make everyday life less repetitive, enhancing the spatial experience of each person. Thinking that a space can provide greater isolation or interaction with others is critical for people to find the ideal place for each task they need to perform in their daily lives. In addition, aspects such as biophilia – especially as the color green, in addition to aesthetics, directly affects our spatial sensation and calms us – or the ability to create outdoor areas are essential to improve the quality of the space, providing more resources and efficiency to each person, as well as can directly affect their mood and health.
In addition to enclosed spaces, we can still focus on cities. From the question of how public space connects with mental health, we can delve into the psychology of scale to understand how the relationship between people and buildings affects society as a whole because, according to Jan Gehl, ” the feeling of comfort and well-being in a city depends deeply on the relationships that can be created between the structure of space and the presence of the human body. ” We also emphasize that the achievement of a healthy city goes through the relationship between urban planning and public health, without forgetting the need to think of trees as infrastructure, as studies show various benefits offered by vegetation, including which we can mention lower rates of depression, asthma, and heart disease.
