The hidden ways that architecture affects how you feel | Psychology

Last
month,
the Conscious
Cities
Conference in
London
considered
how
cognitive
scientists
might
make
their
discoveries
more
accessible
to
architects.
The
conference
brought
together
architects,
designers,
engineers,
neuroscientists
and
psychologists,
all
of
whom
increasingly
cross
paths
at
an
academic
level,
but
still
rarely
in
practice.

One
of
the
conference
speakers,
Alison
Brooks,
an
architect
who
specialises
in
housing
and
social
design,
told
BBC
Future
that
psychology-based
insights
could
change
how
cities
are
built.
“If
science
could
help
the
design
profession
justify
the
value
of
good
design
and
craftsmanship,
it
would
be
a
very
powerful
tool
and
quite
possibly
transform
the
quality
of
the
built
environment,”
she
says.

Researchers
have
begun
monitoring
how
urban
structures,
like
skyscrapers,
physiologically
affect
citizens,
their
mental
states,
and
moods.
(Credit:
Alamy
Stock
Photo)

Greater
interaction
across
the
disciplines
would,
for
example,
reduce
the
chances
of
repeating
such
architectural
horror
stories
as
the
1950s Pruitt-Igoe
housing
complex in
St
Louis,
Missouri,
whose
33
featureless
apartment
blocks
–
designed
by
Minoru
Yamasaki,
also
responsible
for
the
World
Trade
Center
–
quickly
became
notorious
for
their
crime,
squalor
and
social
dysfunction.
Critics
argued
that
the
wide
open
spaces
between
the
blocks
of
modernist
high-rises
discouraged
a
sense
of
community,
particularly
as
crime
rates
started
to
rise.
They
were
eventually
demolished
in
1972.

Pruitt-Igoe
was
not
an
outlier.
The
lack
of
behavioural
insight
behind
the
modernist
housing
projects
of
that
era,
with
their
sense
of
isolation
from
the
wider
community
and
ill-conceived
public
spaces,
made
many
of
them
feel,
in
the
words
of
British
grime
artist
Tinie
Tempah,
who
grew
up
in
one,
as
if
they’d
been
“designed
for
you
not
to
succeed”.

Today,
thanks
to
psychological
studies,
we
have
a
much
better
idea
of
the
kind
of
urban
environments
that
people
like
or
find
stimulating.
Some
of
these
studies
have
attempted
to
measure
subjects’
physiological
responses in
situ,
using
wearable
devices
such
as
bracelets
that
monitor
skin
conductance
(a
marker
of
physiological
arousal),
smartphone
apps
that
ask
subjects
about
their
emotional
state,
and
electroencephalogram
(EEG)
headsets
that
measure
brain
activity
relating
to
mental
states
and
mood.

The
design
of
the
Pruitt-Igoe
housing
complexes
in
St
Louis
was
criticised
for
alienating
communities
and
stoking
racial
segregation.
(Credit:
Alamy
Stock
Photo)

This
adds
a
layer
of
information
that
is
otherwise
difficult
to
get
at,”
said Colin
Ellard,
who
researches
the
psychological
impact
of
design
at
the
University
of
Waterloo
in
Canada.
“When
we
ask
people
about
their
stress
they
say
it’s
no
big
deal,
yet
when
we
measure
their
physiology
we
discover
that
their
responses
are
off
the
charts.
The
difficulty
is
that
your
physiological
state
is
the
one
that
impacts
your
health.”
Taking
a
closer
look
at
these
physiological
states
could
shed
light
on
how
city
design
affects
our
bodies.

One
of
Ellard’s
most
consistent findings is
that
people
are
strongly
affected
by
building
façades.
If
the
façade
is
complex
and
interesting,
it
affects
people
in
a
positive
way;
negatively
if
it
is
simple
and
monotonous.
For
example,
when
he
walked
a
group
of
subjects
past
the
long,
smoked-glass
frontage
of
a
Whole
Foods
store
in
Lower
Manhattan,
their
arousal
and
mood
states
took
a
dive,
according
to
the
wristband
readings
and
on-the-spot
emotion
surveys.
They
also
quickened
their
pace
as
if
to
hurry
out
of
the
dead
zone.
They
picked
up
considerably
when
they
reached
a
stretch
of
restaurants
and
stores,
where
(not
surprisingly)
they
reported
feeling
a
lot
more
lively
and
engaged.

The
writer
and
urban
specialist Charles
Montgomery,
who
collaborated
with
Ellard
on
his
Manhattan
study,
has
said
this
points
to
“an
emerging
disaster
in
street
psychology”.
In
his
book
Happy
City,
he
warns:
“As
suburban
retailers
begin
to
colonise
central
cities,
block
after
block
of
bric-a-brac
and
mom-and-pop-scale
buildings
and
shops
are
being
replaced
by
blank,
cold
spaces
that
effectively
bleach
street
edges
of
conviviality.”