Stephanie G. Mathis This was a description of the practice that asserts without any basis in fact that design solutions will change behavior in a predictable and positive manner.
The phrase was new, but the belief that buildings influence behavior had led architects to make outlandish statements.
A hopeful History
In the 1500s, a Renaissance architect from Italy, Leon Battista Alberti, claimed that classically balanced forms would force aggressive invaders into becoming civilians.
Frank Lloyd Wright was the US architect responsible for designing one of America’s most famous buildings, Fallingwater. He also believed that appropriate architecture could save the US and bring people back to good endeavors.
British author and philosopher Ebenezer H. thought that companies would be more productive if employees lived in garden-like villages.
Le Corbusier HTML0, the Swiss-born French architect, claimed that his Villa Savoye in France would cure the sick. But when the building did the opposite, the war ended, and he avoided going to court.
After a long history of architectural failures, postmodern critics began to attack architectural fantasy. This trend reached its peak with the destruction of the Pruitt Igoe complex of urban housing in St Louis, US.
George Hellmuth Minoru Yamasaki designed the building, and Joseph Leinweber designed it as “community gathering places and safe, enclosed playgrounds.” However, in the 1960s, it became a hub for crime and was demolished.
The destruction of Pruitt Igoe in 1971 fuelled opposition to deterministic thought. Wikimedia
Regrettably, architecture has lost its power. Once, the well-intentioned fantasies of architects gave clients hope and even sometimes results.
This promise was not kept, and the profession was rendered inept in the face of the superior structural knowledge of engineers, cumulative restrictions of generations of planners, calculations of project managers, and the CAD skills of drafters in converting a client’s wishes into reality.
Architecture has lost its soul without fiction. Was determinism discarded too early? Can imagined futures be a part of a world without rationalist constraints?
Restoring faith
Imagine how architecture can influence your experience. Charles Montgomery, a US author, points out in his book Happy City: Transforming our Lives through Urban Design that certain environments can predictably influence our moods.
Our environments indeed affect us whether they are designed or not. In 2008, UK researchers found that walking down South London’s main street for a mere ten minutes increased psychotic symptoms.
In my research, I found that the healthier the person, the more positive and less negative an environment is. Mentally ill people react to bad environments 65 times more negatively than healthy individuals, and these negative reactions are directly translated into symptoms.
About half of the patients show positive responses. This means fewer smiles and laughter, as well as a reported decrease in the feeling of “fun.”
Not only that. Architecture has even more potential. Architecture is a great way to generate awe because it can easily embrace sublime aesthetics.
Psychologists have discovered that we can reduce the severity and prevalence of mood disorders. Could sublime architecture save lives?
It is difficult to prove the psychological effects of architecture, but that doesn’t diminish the value of an architectural design that strikes the right chord and inspires awe. Buildings have different purposes, but they all need to be used to create a certain mood, sense of security, or coherence.
Awe can reduce mood disorders. Gaudi’s Sagrada Familia Church in Spain. Wikimedia
There is a growing belief that buildings have the power to change behavior. This is led by three architectural journals: World Health Design, Environmental Behavior, and Herd.
The majority of these are focused on the design of health care, as that is where behavioral change can have life-and-death consequences.
No one dares to make promises. Research rarely opens up the black box that is environmental psychology. This leaves findings unexplained and even prone to failure.
In order to give architecture its mojo back, we must foster a renewed interest in the way architecture affects us. The clients must learn to trust the architects again, and the research funding bodies need to change gears to encourage research on how buildings influence our moods, health, and behaviors.
Finally, architecture schools must teach their students how to predict emotional, healing, and psychological effects.
Innovation is ultimately driven by imagination, even if it means taking risks or making mistakes.
