TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT
2
INTRODUCTION
3
HAPPY BUILT ENVIRONMENTS
6
FACTORS CONSIDERED WHILE DESIGNING A SPACE FOR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING
7
TANGIBLE FACTORS
7
NATURE
7
MATERIAL
9
COLOUR
10
LIGHT
12
INTANGIBLE FACTORS
13
COMFORT
13
SPACE
14
AROMA
14
MUSIC
15
CONCLUSION
15
REFERENCES
16
ABSTRACT How often does an individual brief his architect or designer that he wishes his space could improve the quality of his mental and physical well-being? The author, through her research, is discovering factors that invoke happiness in humans in an attempt to address the subject of unhappiness. She is pursuing the same by understanding the critical design elements that help improve an individual’s mental and physical health.
Today, the millennial generation frequently link themselves to "stress", and "depression", often without a clinical diagnosis. Owing to this widespread misguided use, a large group of the aware target audience is hungry for a place where they can unwind, discover happiness, attain a stress-free state, and just be whomever they wish to be in that time and space.
This paper is a work in progress on "happy spaces". A happy space is envisioned as an unwinding zone for individuals who may or may not be suffering from mental disorders. The scope of this research is limited to spaces in universities, focusing on a target audience of the age group between 18 and 26 years. Further, this research explores methods to address the stigma that people suffer every day through spatial design and planning. Through surveys conducted, over a period of XX months, on individuals visiting or inhabiting institutional areas, the author has tried to understand the psychology of the users.
Through research, we cannot state or prove the definite manner in which one can achieve a sense of happiness. Just as there are two sides to each coin, this phenomenon is dependant on the person, which makes it intangible and difficult to test.
This study will help us examine if the act of an individual adopting a space, created for unwinding, is defined by any physical element of that space. It will also enlist various other factors that influence such design environments chosen by young individuals for unwinding. 
INTRODUCTION India is the most depressed country in the world, followed by China and the USA, according to the World Health Organisation. As per this statistical analysis India, China, and the USA are highly affected by anxiety, schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.1
A study reported in WHO, conducted for the NCMH (National Care Of Medical Health), states that at least 6.5 per cent of the Indian population suffers from some form of the severe mental disorder, with no discernible rural-urban differences. Though there is no dearth of effective treatment measures, there is an absolute shortage of mental health workers like psychologists, and psychiatrists. As per the latest report from 2014, the number was as low as ''one in 100,000 people”. India also has a high suicide rate of 10.9 for one lakh, and the majority of people committing suicide are below the age of 44.2
We are living in an era where we want to move mountains, but do not give ourselves the required time for the same. Mental inadequacy has always been neglected in the discourse of human well-being. The stigma of being labelled as “mentally unwell” creates fear, negatively impacting our lives, and discouraging people to communicate their problems and accept the required help. 3The authors’ personal experience with those battling mental health issues, and the added shame they face, has led her to a path of finding solutions to inculcate the importance of mental health. She wishes to establish that it is the same as any other fitness battle we face, and yearns to narrow the gap between physical and mental health dimensions.
The author has researched factors invoking joy in a human being, intending to record factors which, through design, promote happiness, leading to a better quality of life. She aims to correlate factors impacting mental and physical health, such as mindfulness, connection and functionality, with factors depending on spatial characteristics.
1INDIA
TODAY (2018)
2INDIA
TODAY (2018)
3INDIA
TODAY (2018)
The author wants to understand the impact of physical characteristics, such as design, on a human. She also wants to understand the effect of functional and non-functional aspects of an environment, such as light, colour, spatial psychology, and cardinal directions, on the health and well-being of an individual.
A major constraint in the field of research is the meaning of happiness across individuals, cultures, regions, and so on. Happiness is perceived differently by different people. Its impacts on the well-being of a person are varied. As humans, we respond and behave independently in each situation. There isn't any law stating how an individual should react to a given situation. We possess diverse mindsets and complex thoughts that define "happiness" for us. Sonja Lyubomirsky, vice-chair of psychology at the University of California, has researched the question of what happiness is and its key ingredients for many years. She explains hedonic happiness as a feeling of positivity from moment-to-moment. It is a subjective term that defining how happiness can be attained through an increase in pleasure and decrease in pain. In an attempt to estimate this, surveys are done asking people about the emotions felt by them. Many psychologists equate hedonic happiness to life satisfaction. A good measurement is thought to be the amount of satisfaction people felt with their lives. Alongside, they are inquired about their desire to have a different life and their wish to trade their life. Both factors that indicate low life-satisfaction. One obstacle faced with this is our inability to recognise the emotion felt by us at that moment. Furthermore, the term "life satisfaction" is based upon several non-quantifiable factors such as the childhood of a person. Lyubomirsky closely relates life satisfaction to the third view of happiness: desire fulfilment. Pragmatists, like economists, frequently associate happiness with the achievement of desire. They believe that as long as one gets what they want, they are happy. Eudaimonic wellbeing, as this approach is called, relies on self-actualisation. It measures if people are flourishing in all domains of life. Lyubomirsky believes she is a hedonist, defining the term by the amount of positive and negative emotions experienced by one. The concern with eudaimonia is that it plateaus after a point of maxima has been reached. Daniel Gilbert, a psychology professor at Harvard University, happiness expert and author of Stumbling on Happiness, has expressed his opinions on the matter stating that once the basic human needs have been met, a lot more money does not make for a lot more happiness. In fact, he says, it may lead to enhanced
levels of stress. A classic example of this is a migrant whose wage has roughly doubled from the movement to the city, but the level of happiness is seen to be lower than the rural population. We can often see this effect in our daily lives in people who resort to shopping as a means of comfort.
HAPPY BUILT ENVIRONMENTS Happiness; it is an incredibly important but often overlooked aspect of our lives. It can result in improved productivity in the workplace and better learning in students. Most importantly, it can drastically improve the quality of life encapsulating both physical and mental health.4
The environment constructed around us is regarded to have an extremely powerful bearing on our feelings. Since we spend a large part (80%) of our time in these places, this effect is pronounced.
It would be extremely difficult to formalise a single colour, texture or pattern that everyone would be able to consume to reach a state of bliss. Each individual has their preference, but as designers, the author believes, they need to discover and build a platform which focuses on maximum people. While designing, the following factors that are based on research findings and are a part of our learning outcomes should be kept in mind: mindfulness, connection, and authenticity.
MINDFULNESS
CONNECTION
AUTHENTICITY
We need spaces where
To make sure the user finds a connect in the space they are using.
To make sure the space is functional and creates a personal space.
all our 5 senses could be involved.
Fig 1. Source: Created by Author
4HAPPINESS
BY DESIGN
FACTORS CONSIDERED WHILE DESIGNING A SPACE FOR MENTAL AND PHYSICAL WELLBEING Through analysis, the author has tried to segregate the factors into two main categories. WELL BEING
TANGIBLE
INTANGIBLE
Fig 2. Source: Created by Author
TANGIBLE FACTORS While happiness is a nebulous concept in itself, the author has sought to find concrete ways to enable a person to be happy. She considers tangible factors to be the ones that can be manipulated by a designer like herself and describes how they can be used to someone's advantage.
NATURE Spending time in nature has been shown to unequivocally improve our happiness and mental wellbeing, regardless of other factors. It has been proven that it reduces stress, improves our memories, and makes us more sensitive and more creative. It is next to impossible to overstate the goodness nature for our minds and well-being. We as designers should maximize accessibility to nature for individuals. Plants and trees offer several benefits to uplift the mood, create a sense of happiness, and provide us with emotional rewards associated with caring and nurturing a living thing. Additionally, they
purify the air we breathe, simultaneously improving our physical and psychological wellbeing. Simply adding a planter to an existing room or integrating an existing tree into a new building can vastly change the outlook of the entire space. Although sometimes it might not to be feasible to incorporate greenery to our internal spaces, a good substitute to which is to maximize nature views.
Besides the element of green, water plays a vital role in promoting calmness in individuals influencing the well-being of an individual. The effect of water can be easily observed by recollecting history. We see that the four major early civilisations were constructed around rivers; it provided significant benefits relating to food and trade. Studies have admittedly revealed that proximity to water induces positivity, happiness and calmness.
There are also many historical and vernacular examples of pools and fountains, all of Mughal Architecture followed this principle as well.
Illustration of the Salk Institue by Louis Kahn Landscape design offers the best opportunity, as water can be included in gardens in the form of ponds, streams or fountains as at Louis Kahn’s Salk Institute.
MATERIAL Materials make up the energy and spirit of the place. Inculcating the feel, the sound, and the smell, materials become major determinants in how we experience the space. As Zumthor, highly regarded for his honest use of materials, states, "We must constantly ask ourselves what the use of a particular material could mean in a specific architectural context."
A good rule of thumb is to try to maximize the use of natural materials - stone, brick, and wood. They have substance, texture, and depth, allowing our vision to penetrate their surfaces and narrating a story with their age and history. While preferred, natural materials may not always be easily accessible. In such times, artificial materials should be used keeping in mind, to heighten their energy.
Through case studies, it was discovered that the spaces that are created for meditation and finding oneself usually consisted of natural materials such as mud, thatched roofs, bamboo, cane, and natural wood furniture. Hence proving that materials which promote nature in interiors increase an individual’s level of peace, happiness and concentration. It’s crucial to celebrate materials for their natural beauty rather than disguising them.
One of the most renowned modernist architects, Frank Lyodd Wright, is remembered for his authentic use of materials. Anne - Cartin Schultz comments, “Wright develops the ideal that every material must be in accordance with its nature on the basis of a characteristic grammar that honors the material and its own striving for form. Characters such as grain, structure and colour determine its colour and its use.
The Dutch artist, Theo Van Doesburg suggested that the inner energy of a material is heightened by its proper use. “When reinforced concrete was first used correctly, the tension, the energy of the concrete came into its own in such a way that architecture was unintentionally, without aesthetic ulterior motives, enriched by a new kind of beauty.
Farewell Chapel / OFIS Arhitekti | ArchDaily
COLOUR Colour is another aspect that changes the visual experience of a space. Colour psychology is an influential factor in context to happy spaces. How colour changes the perception of an individual in a particular space is a vastly researched topic. Our feelings about colour are often deeply personal and rooted in our own experiences or
culture. For example, while the colour white is used in many Western countries to represent purity and innocence, it is seen as a symbol of mourning in many Eastern countries.
Colours are known to influence people’s behaviour in various ways. While some have a calming effect, others are known to stimulate both mental and physical activity. Colours play a more prominent role in our lives than we recognise. Colours, thought to hold healing abilities, are deemed to be exceedingly influential to the human mind and body. Like numerous alternative treatments, Colour Therapy has grown in popularity over the years and is one of the most sought-after treatments today.
Colour therapy or chromotherapy is said to have the following effects on our body and mind: •
Red is used to stimulate the body and mind and to increase circulation.
•
Yellow is thought to stimulate the nerves and purify the body.
•
Orange is used to heal the lungs and to increase energy levels.
•
Blue is believed to soothe illnesses and treat pain.
•
Indigo shades are thought to alleviate skin problems.
Though, through the survey conducted, we found that only 27.8% of people said that colour affects their mood. 87.3% of people believed sound affects their mood the most.
On my visit to Osho Dham, Delhi, I felt a lot of mental peace and physical satisfaction. Black was used for exteriors and white for all interior spaces. Through my discussion with a Practioner / Worker at the Dham, I found out the design motivation behind the use of black for the entire exterior of the space. He said “ As humans, we all tend to find peace and satisfaction with ourselves, though we might show a completely different picture to the people who are closely associated with us. At Osho, we help individuals to move from Darkness (black) to Brightness (white).”
Thus, colour does create a huge impact on how an individual reacts or feels in a particular space, making colour an important design factor which helps increase the mental and physical well-being of an individual.
LIGHT The most superior factor, exposure to Natural Daylight, is considered to impact an individual’s happiness and mental and physical well-being by Channon B. Spaces with no natural light provide us with no connection to the outside world, which could be distressing or even disorienting. The orientation of space plays an integral role in how much light each plot receives and what areas are overshadowed. A designer should try to maximize the amount of natural daylight in a room. 5
The author surveyed 163 people where 93.8% (150) preferred natural light over artificial light and viewed it to be one of the prime aspects inducing happiness in a space. But there are situations where the designers may face an absence in the availability of natural light. In such plots, it's important to maximize the benefits of artificial light impacting our happiness.
It is essential to decide the right range of artificial light to be used, keeping in mind the impact they have on us. While soft whites (2700-3000K) create an intimate feeling, cool whites (3500-4100K) induce energy in us. Studies have shown that one experiences emotions more intensely under bright, harsh lighting, which may deteriorate mood. Individuals may find peace and solace in dark spaces with minimal or no natural light, and Danish lighting designer, Pool Henningsen, has devoted much of his career catering to this aspect. He has designed glare-free and uniform illumination, which have been shown to reduce headaches and improve productivity.6
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INTANGIBLE FACTORS
COMFORT Comfort, which varies upon the person, is a factor that affects the mental well-being of an individual. How many of us might find our peace of mind in an area which is an unpleasant and discomforting setting? The author holds that it’s vital for an individual to feel relaxed, calm, and safe in a build environment.
Through the survey conducted, the analysis of the question “what or how would one like their escape/unwind space to be?” It was a mix of interesting reviews and understandings on how different individuals consider different space settings or arrangements to be “comfortable” or “uncomfortable”.
75.8 % of the individuals suggested that they preferred a casual approach to a space dedicated for unwinding, whereas 19.7% leaned more towards being seated on a floor for finding their comfort zone. The author herself, through her additional readings, has perceived that it's easier to find peace of mind when in direct sync with Earth or natural ground since it helps eliminate worry and anxiety from your body. Only 1.3% of the people thought that a formal set up would help them relax and reconnect with themselves.
The research showed that there are various ways in which people feel relaxed. Some said that their idea of finding their comfort was to watch Television or maybe do some reading. To find your comfort could mean going out for a walk, workout in an open gym, plonk on a couch or bean bag, or just lay flat on a carpeted floor.
There are no fixed answers to what comfort is and what one can do to find that perfect “comfort zone”. But a state of ease is an indispensable part of trying to achieve mental and physical wellness.
SPACE Giving the appropriate amount of control of space to an individual is another contributing factor. A designer should be cognizant of the sense of belonging, ownership, and flexibility while creating these spaces for well-being. An estimated third to half of the people are introverts, preferring environments that are not overstimulating and relying on a quiet time to re-energise.7
Looking at the intangible aspects of what causes mental and physical well-being is essential to understand since it's not always necessary to find a linear form of happiness, seldom to be beneficial and a sense of accomplishment can also induce positive emotions into an individual.
AROMA The sense of smell plays an important role in the physiological effects of mood, stress, and working capacity. Aromatherapy from natural products has been used for mental, spiritual and physical healing since the beginning of recorded history. It is known to improve our cognitive and physical abilities. Daily, we sense several fragrances that play an important role in impacting our mood and thus our happiness.
Recent studies have revealed that olfactory stimulation through fragrance inhalation exerts various psychophysiological effects on human beings. Electrophysiological studies have also been done, revealing that various fragrances affected spontaneous brain activities and cognitive functions. Scientifically, fragrance stimulation of olfactory receptor cells in the nose involves the interaction of fragrance molecules with olfactory-receptor proteins. This sharp sense of identification builds a sense of happiness in us quickly as we experience smells that are perceived as pleasant
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8LiveScience
MUSIC Our brains are hardwired to interpret and react emotionally to a piece of music. A natural aspect of the space we live in, the impacts of harmony are not given importance. While engaging in music regularly enhances our levels of subjective wellbeing, it has also been found to boost the immune system and catalyse recovery after surgeries. Studies have shown that it helps improve motor functions in patients recovering from strokes.8
The notes in music affect us based on our understanding of it. For most people, music featuring a fast tempo and written in a major key, also known as happy music, causes them to breathe faster, which is construed as a physical sign of happiness. On the other hand, sad music, which is usually made of minor keys and is very slow, causes a slowing of pulse and rise in blood pressure. Due to these reasons, music therapy is often used and is proven to be highly effective in treating patients suffering from depression. CONCLUSION The author concludes that a “happy space� is not one; it depends on person to person. While the demand for comfortable areas may be essential to those with cognitive challenges, it is a necessity for everyone nonetheless. Moreover, these spaces may be created with as little, or as much change a person desires to make.
Although happiness is a liquid concept, she categorises the elements affecting peace into tangible and intangible. Tangible components such as light, nature, materials, and colour can be adjusted by a designer to obtain the highest possible positive result with a large group of people. Intangible aspects, such as comfort, space, aroma, and music, are challenging to alter from the design perspective; these are majorly dependant on the individual themselves.
She gathers that as much as possible, a designer should help their clients understand this concept and integrate it into their work.
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Channon, B. (2018). Happy by design: A guide to architecture and mental wellbeing.
Foroux, D. (2019, August 2). The Purpose Of Life Is Not Happiness: It's Usefulness. Retrieved from https://medium.com/darius-foroux/the-purpose-of-life-is-not-happiness-itsusefulness-65064d0cdd59
(2018, May 9). How space and architecture influence happiness. Retrieved from https:// www.theglobeandmail.com/life/relationships/how-space-and-architecture-influencehappiness/article4095979/
https://libres.uncg.edu/ir/uncg/f/ORourke_uncg_0154M_12395.pdf
Manson, M. (2019). The subtle art of not giving a f*ck: A counterintuitive approach to living a good life.
Garcia, H., Miralles, F., Dixon, W., &Gildan Media. (2018). Ikigai: The Japanese secret to a long and happy life. New York: Distributed by] RBdigital.
Manson, M. (2019). Everything is f*cked: A book about hope.
https://www.burohappold.com/news/ten-environmental-factors-improve-health-wellbeingproductivity-part-1/
https://www.livescience.com/2953-amazing-power-music-revealed.html