The Happy Design Toolkit, page 4
3 Where possible, maximise the light that these spaces receive to further encourage their use. If it is possible to add width or make them double height, this will further increase the sense of space and openness.
Windows positioned based on use
'The structure of life I have described in buildings - the structure which I believe to be objective - is deeply and inextricably connected with the human person, and with the innermost nature of human feeling.' - CHRISTOPHER ALEXANDER, ARCHITECT
Figure 1.8: Starter Home Adaptive Reuse Housing, No. 4-15, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, by OJT
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Improved sleep
► Nature interaction
► Improved liveability
► Greater adaptability
► Physical comfort
Potential issues and considerations
► Aesthetic challenges (external)
► Design programme / budget
► Specialist input useful
For many, a successful building is judged largely on how it looks from the outside. It seems reasonable to assume that external appearance has played a role since the very earliest buildings were designed. Even the oldest building remains in the world, Göbekli Tepe in Turkey (dating back to the tenth millennium BC) includes decorative features. In the comparatively recent times of the Roman empire, Vitruvius established his three essential principles of good architecture: stability, utility and beauty.29
This idea of 'beauty’ is one that endures to this day, and in fact has dominated the British architectural press in recent years in the so-called 'style wars'. To the dismay of many architects, the government-commissioned 'Living with Beauty' report was published in 2019, followed by a draft national design code which looked to 'stamp out ugliness', forgetting, of course, that what is deemed beautiful to government advisors may not be seen as beautiful to everybody else.30
White it may seem strange to argue that creating 'beautiful' buildings shouldn’t be our top priority as architects, there is a case for this. Core to the classical principles of beauty, revived in Renaissance and Georgian architecture, are symmetry, proportion, regularity and geometry. This approach posits that it is far more important for a window to align with others in the facade than to be positioned based on the impact it will have on the internal space.
By its very nature this approach therefore seems to suggest that the outside of buildings is more important than the inside, despite the fact that we now spend over 90% of our time indoors.31 If we become obsessed with designing buildings from the outside inwards, we are not actually focusing on the most important element of architecture: the people who use it.
The alternative approach, of course, is to design from the inside and work outwards, beginning with details and elements people will use every day and considering what impact these will have on their experience of space. Architect Christopher Alexander has argued, for example, that windows should be individually sized and located to Suit the shape and proportions of a room and its requirements.32
With most of us now spending so much time inside, this is a compelling argument. Why should we spend our waking hours in a space where the amount of light is determined by the appearance of the facade? The likely outcome is that windows will be either too small or too large for many of the internal spaces, which in turn will either become dark and melancholy or too hot and unpleasant in which to spend time. Another potential issue resulting from this approach is that windows will be in entirety impractical positions - perhaps preventing optimal furniture layouts and having an impact on how the space can be used, or facing in the wrong direction to maximise the best views.
This is not to say that architecture which begins with the human experience needs be ugly. There are many ways to design buildings that allow for well-considered, attractively proportioned facades, while still creating freedom in the potential positions of windows. One frequently used and effective approach is to place windows within a larger grid system, with the freedom to move around within each portion of the grid. However you decide to tackle this issue, be certain that you have considered how window positions will impact on people on both sides of your building’s facades.
Design tips
1 When designing a space, consider all the issues that window position and size might create, including amount and quality of light, views out and potential impacts on the internal layout of the room itself.
2 Be aware of a room's specific location within a building and the impact that has on the internal space. An identical room on the fifth floor might need smaller windows than one on the first, as it will likely receive more daylight.
3 Remember to keep switching between both external and internal appearance when designing. Much like we create external elevations and visualisations, it can be helpful to do the same internally, even for smaller rooms
High-quality task lighting
'Live in rooms full of light.'
- AULUS CORNELIUS CELSUS, ROMAN DOCTOR
Figure 1.9: Dyson Lightcycle Morph, which automatically adjusts its brightness and light temperature throughout the day to reduce eye strain
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Increased productivity
► Greater adaptability
► Physical comfort
► Increased autonomy
Potential issues and considerations
► Specialist input useful
In the last 300 years or so, the type of work the average person engages in has changed enormously. At the start of the eighteenth century, for example, agriculture was the biggest source of employment in Britain, but over the next 150 years, this shifted dramatically and by 1850 Britain had the smallest proportion of its population engaged in farming of any country in the world, at just 22%.33 This was the result of industrialisation and farming increased yields, which meant that much less of the population needed to work the land. Instead, the population saw a move towards indoor work, often featuring close concentration tasks, such as manufacture or writing, which was reflected in literacy levels during this period. In 1800, around 40% of men and 60% of Women in England Were illiterate; by 1900 this had fallen to around 3% for both sexes.34
This pattern has continued, with the UK literacy rate now at around 99% and the number of people doing 'close concentration' jobs still on the rise. The most common form of employment in the UK today is that classed as 'professional’, at around 21% of all workers, while just 1% now work in agriculture, forestry and fishing.35 As a result, it is vital that workplaces - and with the increase in remote working, homes - support people working on close, visual tasks.
One of the key elements in supporting this is good lighting. Without appropriate task lighting, people can suffer from eye strain, headaches-and migraines. While all of these are fairly certain to make you feel less happy in the moment, perhaps more interesting to us is the fact that adequate lighting has been shown to have a positive impact on mood and cognitive performance, while lighting environments that are customised by individuals have been shown to improve satisfaction levels.36
Part of the reason for this is that what is deemed an adequate level of light varies from person to person, based on a number of factors. For example, as we age the amount of light that can pass through our lenses is reduced, meaning that individuals over 65 can require up to twice the light levels of their 25-year-old counterparts. This is obviously challenging to achieve with uniform light levels across, say, an office space, so providing staff with individual, adjustable desk lamps can be a far more effective approach. An alternative approach is to use what is known as a 'free address' strategy, allowing stiff to work wherever they like in a space and splitting it into lighting zones' which can be adjusted based on occupant requirements.
As well as the quantity of light provided, it is also important to bear in mind its quality, with issues such as glare, flicker and low colour rendering becoming potential problem areas. Where possible, consult with a lighting specialist to ensure task lighting is designed to consider these aspects.
Like many other tools in this book, people tend to feel better when they have control over the lighting of their immediate environment. There are many solutions to this challenge, but ultimately the people using your buildings will feel greater satisfaction if the lighting design empowers them to tailor their space to their own personal needs.
Design tips
1 List the daily tasks likely to be undertaken by people in any space you are designing and explore ways in which lighting can support them in these, not just in regards of brightness and temperature, but also in terms of adaptability.
2 Explore the possibility of breaking a building or floorplate down into different 'lighting zones' - perhaps some could be used to encourage social interaction while others could be better suited to reading a report.
3 Be aware of other wellbeing issues related to lighting, such as glare, flicker and colour rendering, and consult with a specialist lighting designer to help avoid these issues.
Phone lockers
'Technology can be our best friend, and technology can also be the biggest party pooper of our lives. It interrupts our own story, interrupts our ability to have a thought or a daydream, to imagine something wonderful.' - STEVEN SPIELBERG, FILM DIRECTOR
Figure 1.10: The Italian Building co-living, London, UK, by Mason & Fifth
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Improved sleep
► Physical health
Potential issues and considerations
► Possible social impacts
The amount of time that people spend looking at screens has rocketed in recent years. Even pre-COVID-19, the average person in the UK was spending nearly three and a half hours a day - or 50 days each year - looking at screens.37 If you're brave enough now, why not open your device, go into your settings and see how much screen time you've accumulated in the last week?
This isn't all our fault, however. Strategies such as push notifications, red bubbles on apps that we feel we have to 'resolve' and infinite scrolling feeds are all designedin so that we struggle to put down our phones. When our brains feel rewarded (for example, when we dear a notification or receive a 'like' on social media), they release the feel-good chemical dopamine, of which app designers are all too aware. While it may feel good at first, this dopamine hit can be highly addictive and in the long run it doesn't always make us happy.33 39% of people who have attempted a digital detox said they felt better as a result, while 11% of people said that the amount they used their phone made them feel anxious.
Much of this screen time takes place in our bedrooms too, with 55% of people reporting that they use their phones in bed and 79% stating that they spend time looking at their phones before going to sleep. Unfortunately, these habits can have a significant impact on our quality of sleep, in part due to the impact that blue light can have on our circadian rhythms, but also because the sorts of activities we do on our phones-reading emails, using social media or checking the news - can keep our minds engaged and 'fired up' just before try to go to sleep.
The impacts of mobile phone use around bedtime have been proven in numerous studies, to the extent that The National Sleep Foundation now recommends we should stop using all electronic devices at least 30 minutes before we go to sleep, instead suggesting activities such as reading.39 Even keeping a phone near our pillows has been shown to correlate With sleep disturbances, increased steep latency (how long it takes us to fall asleep after turning the lights off) and daytime sleepiness.
However, there are ways in which designers can encourage a healthier relationship with our phones, and promote 'digital detoxing' - perhaps the most effective of these being 'digital lockers’. Companies such as 'Unplugged' are now offering weekend breaks in relaxation cabins - with the first rule being that on arrival you lock your phone away, where it will stay for the duration of your holiday, allowing you to truly unplug and relax.
We can also use similar strategies in homes, such as at the Italian Building by co-living provider Mason & Fifth, where residents have cupboards by beds, (complete with openings for charging cables) in which to store their phones at night. While they might still be within- reach, the simple step of putting the phone away for the evening is intended to create a psychological barrier to using them during the night.
Design tips
1 Provide places for people to store their phones when doing 'relaxing' activities. This could be during sleeping, on holiday, during activities such as yoga or playing sport, or simply just during lunch hours.
2 Make the lockers or cupboards more appealing to use, by allowing for phone charging within them
Staggered balconies
'Anyone's life truly lived consists of work, sunshine, exercise, soap, plenty of fresh air and a happy contented spirit.' - LILLIE LANGTRY, ACTRESS AND SOCIALITE
Figure 1.11: Ocean Estate, Tower Hamlets, London, UK, by Levitt Bernstein
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Improved sleep
► Improved liveability
► Moments of joy / awe
► Physical comfort
Potential issues and considerations
► Structural issues
► Aesthetic challenges (external)
► Space / layout requirements
► Design programme / budget
When setting out balconies on the facades of residential buildings, the initial temptation is usually to align them vertically. After all, since the Renaissance the perceived wisdom within architectural design was that features or openings look better when lined up with those above them. Similarly, when we lay out apartments, we are taught to stack elements. By placing quiet spaces above one another we can reduce potential acoustic issues, efficiently stack services and reduce the amount of design work required with repetition across floors.
However, by aligning projecting balconies above each other we effectively guarantee they are all in shadow, which - although sometimes providing useful shading to the outdoor spaces themselves - can significantly reduce the amount of daylight they (and subsequently the rooms behind them) receive. Lighting experts speak of the ‘vertical sky component' of each window, which is essentially a measure of how much of the sky is visible from the centre point of a window — for reference, a window that achieves, 27% is deemed to provide good levels of light.40 As you can imagine, a pair of double-glazed doors that sit below a deep, wide balcony can easily fall short of that figure, particularly if the building is already in a dense urban area.
Private amenity spaces are highly valuable to those living in cities. However, when stacked vertically they can also have significant negative impacts to the quality and quantity of light received by spaces below them. When designing residential buildings, we therefore have a responsibility to consider the impacts of the balconies.
One of the most effective ways to reduce the impact on flats below is to return to the vertical sky component, by ensuring that we increase the area of visible sky from each window as much as possible (unless, of course, we are deliberately shading them for other reasons, such as part of an overheating Strategy). One way to achieve this is through staggering balconies by alternating their position up and down a building to prevent them from sitting directly above windows below.
It is possible to achieve this without losing all the aforementioned benefits of stacked apartments. For example, flats can remain identical to those above and below them, but the door positions can move within each living space so that on one floor it is at the far right-hand-side, while on the floor below it is at the far left, and so on.
If this is deemed to be too costly or challenging, then balcony doors can even stay in the same position up and down the building. Simply moving the balconies to the alternating ends of those doors will allow for more daylight to reach the rooms, behind them, as well as the balconies themselves. A further benefit of this is that it does not even result in new flat types that need to be designed, minimising the amount of extra design resource required.
To those who argue that vertically stacked balconies are more attractive, we can counter that this is simply a personal view, and likely a result of being taught to think in such a way. We know that humans tend to enjoy some level of pattern and visual interest, both of which can be created if designers become a little more playful with the setting out of balconies.
Design tips
1 Think about structure from an early stage. It is important to ensure that a straight line of vertical structure can be provided even if windows and balconies are moving around.
2 Explore ways in which balconies can be alternated without significant changes to the spaces they serve.
3 Use balconies as an opportunity to create movement, visual interest or joy in a facade.
4 Consider implications on privacy, as those above may be able to look down on to lower balconies with such an approach.
Sinks next to windows
'Even the mundane task of washing dishes by hand is an example of the small tasks and personal activities that once filled people's daily lives with a sense of achievement.'
- B.F. SKINNER, PSYCHOLOGIST
Figure 1.12: Penthouse kitchen, The Rye apartments, London, UK, by Tikari Works
Potential mental wellbeing benefits
► Mindfulness opportunity
► Nature interaction
► Personalisation opportunities
► Moments of joy / awe
► Improved liveability
Potential issues and considerations
► Space / layout requirements
