Architects and Designers - Resources
How to help?
Ideas on how to design buildings that matter:
Understand Human Sciences Fundamentals: Architects need to grasp basic human sciences to anticipate how their designs will impact people, understanding the complex interplay between built environments and human behavior, emotions, and health.
Sensory Perception Awareness: A deep knowledge of how sensory perception—including the effects of light, touch (haptics), materials, movement, vision, and hearing—affects human experience is crucial for creating spaces that are not only functional but also emotionally resonant.
Reflect City Identity in Design: Architects should design spaces that embody and enhance the identity of the city, avoiding generic structures that lack connection to their location's unique culture, history, and environment.
Employ Evidence-Based Design: Utilizing design principles backed by environmental psychology and neuroscience ensures that spaces are crafted based on how humans interact with their surroundings, improving well-being and functionality.
Incorporate Social Anthropology: Understanding social anthropology helps architects grasp the phenomenological experience of individuals within buildings and the broader built environment, ensuring designs are deeply rooted in human social behavior and cultural practices.
Promote Equality with Universal Design: Ensuring accessibility and inclusivity through universal design principles and actively engaging users in the design process helps eliminate inequality and create spaces that are accessible and enjoyable for all.
Prioritize Integration with Urban Context: Recognizing a building's role within the larger urban ecosystem promotes a sense of belonging and contributes to a cohesive city experience, strengthening community ties.
Embrace Material and Environmental Responsibility: Choosing sustainable materials and incorporating green spaces are vital for promoting environmental health and well-being, reflecting a commitment to both planetary and human health.
Foster Community Through Design: Designing with an emphasis on communal areas and opportunities for social engagement fosters a strong sense of community, encouraging interactions and building social networks within spaces.
Leverage Technology and Local Culture: Smart technology should be used to enhance the functionality and sustainability of buildings, while also integrating cultural and artistic expressions to enrich the community's identity and sense of place.
Architects and designers hold a pivotal role in shaping the built environment and, by extension, the types of experiences people have within them. Their work transcends mere construction, venturing into the realm of crafting experiences, emotions, and memories. The design of buildings and spaces is not just about aesthetics or functionality; it's about considering the human experience at every level, ensuring that each structure enriches the lives of those who interact with it. This profound responsibility underscores the need for architects and designers to approach their work with a deep understanding of human psychology, physiology, perception, and experience.
The unique position of architects and designers comes from their methodology, which combines art, heritage, meaning, and experience. This blend allows them to see the world through a different lens, one that captures the essence of human experience and translates it into the physical form. Such a perspective is critical in creating spaces that are not only beautiful and functional but also meaningful and supportive of the human spirit.
To design with the human experience in mind, architects and designers must have a foundational understanding of the human sciences, what it means to be a human and how physical spaces can affect emotions, behaviors, and overall mental health. This knowledge enables them to create environments that promote well-being, facilitate social connections, and enhance the quality of life. It's about designing spaces that are not only accessible to everyone, regardless of age or ability, but also fostering environments that encourage social cohesion and community engagement.
Key Resources
1. Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA) ANFA promotes and advances knowledge linking neuroscience research to a growing understanding of human responses to the built environment. Their website offers resources, publications, and information on upcoming events related to neuroscience and architecture.
2. Design for Well-being—Framework for Design Excellence The American Institute of Architects (AIA) provides a framework emphasizing design strategies that support health and well-being for all people, considering physical, mental, and emotional effects on building occupants and the surrounding community.
https://www.aia.org/design-excellence/aia-framework-for-design-excellence/well-being
3. Architecture for Well-being and Health This article outlines essential guidelines that designers can follow to promote health-supporting human behaviors through building design, emphasizing holistic approaches beyond optimizing single parameters.
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.4081/jphr.2014.276
5. Perkins&Will's Open-Source Tool for Healthier Environments Architecture and design firm Perkins&Will have developed a digital resource that allows architects and designers to access key public health data to inform their design decisions, centralizing demographic, environmental, and health data into a geospatial database.
https://precede.perkinswill.com/
6. "Using Ambient Scent to Enhance Well-Being in the Multisensory Built Environment" by Charles Spence
This article explores how the olfactory atmosphere in built environments can significantly influence mood and well-being. It discusses the impact of both unpleasant and pleasant ambient odors, the concept of sick-building syndrome, and the importance of considering multisensory congruency in design to avoid sensory overload. The review emphasizes the need for a holistic approach to sensory design in architecture.
7. "The Eyes of the Skin: Architecture and the Senses" by Juhani Pallasmaa
In this seminal work, Pallasmaa critiques the dominance of visual perception in architecture and advocates for a more holistic approach that engages all the senses. He argues that the suppression of the other four sensory realms has led to the overall impoverishment of our built environment, diminishing the spatial experience of buildings and architecture's ability to inspire and engage. Pallasmaa emphasizes the importance of tactile, auditory, olfactory, and gustatory experiences in creating spaces that are life-enhancing and promote well-being. This book is essential reading for those looking to deepen their understanding of multi-sensory design in architecture.
8. Conscious Cities Movement The Conscious Cities movement explores how architecture and urban design can better consider and respond to human needs through data analysis, artificial intelligence, and the application of cognitive sciences in design.
https://theccd.org/conscious-cities/
9. Moving Boundaries: Human Sciences and the Future of Architecture The "Moving Boundaries" initiative offers courses and conferences that provide an intensive introduction to the interface between disciplines concerned with the design of the built environment and the scientific understanding of multisensory human perception and behavior. It covers topics such as dynamic experience in space, architectural atmospheres, daylight, and restorative environments.