The Happy Design Toolkit, page 19
In some sense, the idiosyncrasies, flaws and tiny variations in each handmade piece are what make it special The Japanese have a word for this, wabi-sabi, which refers to 'a beauty of things imperfect, impermanent or incomplete'.33 Characteristics of wabi-sabi include simplicity, roughness and asymmetry, and has been described as the most characteristic feature of what we think of as traditional Japanese beauty - in direct contrast to the classical ideals of beauty or perfection in the western world. While it can be a challenging idea for many of us to get our heads around, we can perhaps look at it in this way - when you know that your bookcase is identical to 100,000 others around the world, it somehow has less of a sense of being 'yours', and it becomes less Special and less beautiful.
Other studies suggest that people prefer handmade objects because they are more 'creative', higher quality, better for the environment, more personal, or because they are keen to support local and artisan communities.34
Almost all these factors can make us feel more positive and most are explored in this book. Improved quality goods or those with a sense of belonging personally to us have the potential to support a sense of higher personal value and a more positive self-image. Supporting the environment can address eco-anxiety concerns, and championing local traders can provide a sense of altruism, which can promote physiological changes in the brain linked with happiness.35
Handmade furniture generally offers greater transparency, too, in terms of both a product's ingredients and supply chain. These can give its owners a sense of reassurance: firstly that the item doesn't contain toxic or harmful materials that could release VOCs into the air, and secondly that it has been produced in an ethical way.
Of course, there ate challenges when it comes to sourcing handmade furniture, primarily relating to cost. One of the great advantages of mass-produced furniture is that it can be made quickly and efficiently, making it much generally much cheaper. One Way to address this is to specify handmade furniture in the places that they will make the most difference - at the reception desk or at a feature table for example. However, given the potential impact that a large order can have on a small supplier, local craftspeople may often be prepared to negotiate on price as economies of scale come into play, so don't rule out using handmade furniture without a thorough investigation of the possibilities.
Design tips
1 Look to specify locally sourced and handmade furniture to reduce impact on the environment, support local communities and give occupants the sense that these objects are special and unique to them.
2 Much as with healthy ingredients, consider ways to communicate such strategies to occupants - through strategies like 'transparent sourcing' documents or information sheets accessible through QR codes or online
3 While handmade furniture might seem unaffordable on paper, local artisans may be prepared to negotiate, so visit local markets and workshops to get a true understanding of price.
4 If the budget will not stretch to handmade objects throughout, consider where they will have the biggest impact and communicate the social and psychological value of these pieces to the client.
Nooks and crannies
The essence of interior design will always be about people and how they live. It is about the realities of what makes for an attractive, civilized, meaningful environment. not about fashion or what's in or what's out.'
- ALBERT HADLEY, INTERIOR DESIGNER
Figure 5.9: Tivoli Building, Cartagena, Spain, by Martin Lejarraga Oficina de Arquitectura
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Personalisation opportunities
► Greater adaptability
► Aesthetic benefits
► Historic / cultural references
Potential issues and considerations
► Impact on layouts
► Detailing
Up until the last century or so, the places in which we lived and Worked were full of 'imperfections'. Humanity's earliest structures were shaped by nature, and certainly wouldn't have consisted of perfect straight lines. As most of the world's population moved into more 'formal' buildings, fireplaces became essential, and these generally demanded a hearth with some sort of chimney breast, leaving two recesses on either side. These became an accepted feature and sometimes even a symbol of prestige, and as a result many occupants (even to this day) added 'false' chimney breasts.
Other types of niches can be found in older buildings too, for a number of reasons. They might be left over as a remnant of historic building features, such as a window that was bricked up as a result of William Ill's infamous window tax of 1696. Sometimes niches were deliberately designed-in, too, perhaps as a place for a piece of art or simply as a recessed cupboard.
As we moved through the twentieth century, a general trend away from such features emerged. Be it partly as a result of Mies: van der Rohe's 'Less is more' philosophy, new construction methodologies that allowed for longer spans and clean lines, or the replacement of chimneys with gas boilers, many modern buildings are now characterised by flat, straight walls with few, if any, niches and nooks.
While these make great showhouses, they arguably make worse buildings to occupy. When spaces have nooks and crannies furniture can slot into them, resulting in usable, orthogonal footprints. Without niches, furniture can often project into the room, creating strange, leftover spaces between them. Ironically, perhaps, these 'surplus spaces' are anything but surplus: they can make a room easier to inhabit or furnish.
Smaller recesses or cubbyholes can be useful too, offering opportunities for storage, which as we already know play an important role in how we psychologically perceive a space. They might be appropriated as a bookshelf or place to keep keys, offering a sense of Control as Occupants adapt these features to make them their own. They provide opportunities for personalisation too, as places for ornamentation, such as photographs, sculpture or vases.
On the previous page we saw some of the benefits that can be provided by giving places a sense of individualism and uniqueness, and perhaps such nooks and crannies can be a way for homes to have their own sense of wabi-sabi. We have also explored the negative impacts associated with the feeling you are living in a 'cookiecutter' house identical to all those around you - and again these features could be a simple way to give homes their own distinct character.
We can use nooks and crannies to incorporate other tools; from this book. For example, by designing-in a protruding Window bay in place of a flat wall with a window, we can create an occupiable space that receives far more daylight, reaping many of me benefits discussed in Chapter 1. Alternatively, we could build in a window box within a small niche, adding biophilic value. Ultimately, we should rethink our position on these features, which are Often seen as inconvenient, leftover! from the way we used to design buildings. In actual fact they offer a number of benefits in terms-of both liveability and quality of occupier experience, generally leading to a richer, more characterful space.
Design tips
1 In the design process we often focus on eliminating peculiar recesses or odd junctions: consider whether this is truly necessary and whether in fact they may offer benefits.
2 When working on historic buildings, avoid 'fixing' strange leftover features, alcoves and cubbyholes. These are often the parts of buildings that give them their character and will no doubt be useful to future occupants.
Pitched roofs and playful typologies
Form follows function.'
- LOUIS SULLIVAN, ARCHITECT
Figure 5.10: Gray Villa, Maku, Iran, by White Cube Atelier
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Psychological response
► Aesthetic benefits
► Moments of joy / awe
► Historic / cultural references
► Legibility benefits
Potential issues and considerations
► Design programme / budget
► Consultation important
Generally, as a species, we like things to look how we would expect them to. We see this perhaps most obviously in foods: when Heinz trialled a purple tomato ketchup, people found it disgusting and it was an enormous commercial failure. Green ketchup did alright, as tomatoes can be green but, overwhelmingly, consumers prefer red ketchup.36
We seem to react similarly when it comes to buildings. Ask a British child to draw a house and they will most likely sketch a square box with a pitched roof, two or four windows, a front door and a chimney. As Alison Lurie explains in her book The Language of Houses, we find simple buildings reassuring, because we immediately understand them.37 Other projects tend to be better received at consultation if they are 'visually fitting', that, is that they look how we expect them to look. Louis Sullivan's quote at the beginning of this section is perhaps the most frequently used in architecture, and for good reason - we really do seem to prefer buildings that meet our visual expectations.
This is particularly strong in housing, perhaps because of our highly personal connection to our homes. To quote Lily Bernheimer, ‘our emotional attachment to our homes can be almost as strong as: our emotional attachment to other people'.38 Environmental psychologists often refer to this phenomenon as place attachment', and the design and appearance of buildings can play a large role in this. Indeed, without humans assigning meaning and value to somewhere, it if not a ‘place’ at all, but simply a space'.
Whether it is an apartment, terraced house or mansion, where we live must encapsulate that almost indefinable quality of 'homeliness' - and one of the first steps to achieving this is to make it look more like a home. In much of the world, this means having a pitched roof.
Before modern construction techniques, in wetter climates a pitched roof was essentially the only way to protect your home from the elements. Rather than pooling water or Snow, pitched roofs can shed precipitation with ease, reducing risks of water infiltration and enhancing durability and lifespan. As a result, we now visually associate pitched roofs with the idea of home and protection, with some studies showing that adding one to your home can offer up to a 63% return on investment, as buyers find them more enticing.39
The same approach can be applied across all typologies. We might expect an office to have a flat roof, for example, but could find it strange if its facade was covered in balconies. Similarly, we would probably expect a school to be low-rise, and maybe more colourful than other building types. We can also apply the same way of thinking to local context: ideally a project should look like it belongs to a place, while of course achieving the varied visual identity we have previously explored.
By understanding such typologies, it also offers us the opportunity as designers to become more playful, and to adapt or tweak expectations to create moments, of joy through architecture. One contemporary exponent of this approach is FAT (Fashion Architecture Taste), who Often play with viewer expectations Of both typology and context to bring genuine Intrigue and delight into their project, such as in their 2006 Social housing project at Islington Square, Manchester.40 It is important, however, to be aware of the pitfall of 'the architectural joke'. As many postmodernists discovered in the 1980s, a funny piece of design or use of materials could bring a smile to somebody's face the first time they see it, but after ten years the joke Will likely feel pretty tired.
Design tips
1 Buildings that reflect their typology and context tend to be viewed more positively - design places in such a way that their use is easily identifiable.
2 This doesn’t mean that flat roofs aren't appropriate for any residential buildings, just that pitched roofs are one of many techniques to bring to mind ideas of home and suggest protection and safety.
3 Play with typologies to create visual interest or moments of joy in places.
4 Aim to imbue a building with meaning, nostalgia or psychological associations, turning it from a 'space' to a 'place'.
Urban legibility features
The mark of a great city isn't how it treats its special places - everybody does that right but how it treats its ordinary ones.'
- AARON M. RENN, URBAN ANALYST
Figure 5.11: The Shard and City Hall, London, UK, by various architects
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Legibility benefits
► Sense of safety
► Increased activity
Potential issues and considerations
► Large-scale interventions
► Consultation required
Feeling lost within a building can be an unpleasant or even anxiety-inducing experience. Given that cities can contain thousands or even millions of buildings, they are infinitely more complex than a single building. This means it is vital to provide legibility at a larger, urban scale - and there are is number of strategies that can help us achieve this.
The first approach is to support people in maintaining a clear sense of direction. A layout such as a grid can be a powerful tool in achieving this, as seen in Manhattan or the newer parts of Barcelona. Stray into the older parts of Barcelona, however, and the streets become notoriously difficult to navigate. Because these place have evolved over time like a layered palimpsest, there is often no clear pattern or discernible logic, meaning it is very easy to lose our sense of direction.
Humans generally like exploring and respond well to some level of intrigue, so it is important to break from a rigid grid on occasion, perhaps with a diagonal street or a zig-zagged path. However, there is also the argument that if we make places more legible, people will feel safer to explore them, so we should strive for a balance of clarity and mystery. It is also important to avoid rotational symmetry, of which London's Piccadilly Circus is a good example.41 For someone unfamiliar with the area, whichever direction you approach it from, it looks quite similar, meaning it is very tricky to get a sense, of north or south. Grid layouts can also result in this effect, but fortunately there are other strategies we can use to support us here - not least the introduction of landmarks.
Much as we can use colour as a feature to support better wayfinding, a similar approach can be used: with landmark buildings or urban features such as Statues or monuments.42 Research has shown that within the hippocampus, animals have 'place cells', which fire up when we are in a place we recognise, as well as when we see 'landmark' objects. Studies reveal that landmarks must have a key set of properties: distinctiveness (they should be unique), stability (they must not move of change), and position (they should be visually prominent).
For this reason, historically this role was often played by cathedrals or church spires but is now more frequently taken up by office buildings or cultural landmarks. For all the criticism that tall buildings receive, when done well they can offer benefits to a city's legibility and offer high value in the right location. By providing such landmark elements we can provide a reference for the place cells in occupants' hippocampi, helping them to recognise locations more easily.
Corner buildings provide a good opportunity to create such markers, as cornets generally signal places we may need to alter our trajectory, which is why we often hear architects and planners talk about the importance of a 'strong corner'. An alternative approach is to place a landmark building next to a recognisable linear element such as a river for example, the Shard next to the Thames, or St Louis' Gateway Arch adjacent to the Mississippi.
Whichever strategy is used, the key is to create places that people can understand and of which they can build a mental map. Without this, we risk designing cities that deter movement, exploration and the formation of new communities that can follow.
Design tips
1 Review strategic locations for potential 'landmark' elements early in any large-scale project.
2 These can work well at key junctions or next to other linear elements like rivers, parks or roads.
3 To be effective, landmarks must be visually distinctive from other, similar elements: a generic residential or commercial tower is unlikely to be effective in activating the hippocampus.
4 Consider how streets and masterplans are laid out - they should seek to follow existing organisational structures or introduce other strategies to support a clear 'sense of direction' in occupants and visitors.
CHAPTER 6
Activity and exercise
DOI: 10.4324/9781003277897-7
Not only does the city shape the way we move, but our movements shape the city in return.
- CHARLES MONTGOMERY, HAPPY CITY
Figure 6.0: Xiamen Bicycle Skyway, China, by Dissing+Weitling
As a species, humans have historically needed to he active to survive.1 Around 1.8 million years ago, we began to develop tools for butchering animals, so we know that by this point we were reliant on hunting and running down animals for at least some of our food. As huntergatherers, we were almost entirety a nomadic species, Walking an estimated 12,000 to 18,000 steps S day, so it is little surprise that exercise generally makes us feel better both physically and psychologically.
With all of that in mind, we also evolved to conserve energy wherever possible.2 We need energy (often measured in 'calories') to perform Our daily tasks, not to mention to keep our bodies' internal mechanisms running, from our immune systems to Our hormone production.3 As a species, our brains are so large that a quarter of all the oxygen we breathe goes to feeding our brains, and as I result they use a lot of energy. This is why, if most of us were given the choice between relaxing on the sofa or going for a jog, the majority would pick the sofa - it is an evolutionary response.
