Health and architecture human angle to creating sustainable built environments Marjo Uotila Baltic Region Healthy Cities Webinar 4.10.2016
What we sense affects our mental and physical health How we as humans sense the environment, what kind of environments make us feel happiness, fear, anxiety, stress, is to a great extent subjective, universal, irrespective of our background Urban development should be sensitive to the human senses Based on scientific evidence, an environment characterized by people as beautiful has significant positive effects on our health and well-being, as opposed to that referred to as ugly, eg cortisole (stress hormone) The aim to create intense contrasts instead of harmony has not been likely to result in loveable, beautiful built environments Eg recent studies on environmental psychology (Aalto University) show that majority of respondents identifying positive effects of their environment, were related to the beauty of the environment, and vice versa, the majority of negative characteristics identified in the respondents environment, were related to ugliness (n=10.000+)
Buildings creating negative effects to human senses: intolerable noise, ugliness, burning sun rays, wind tunnels Beetham Tower, Manchester Shoreham, Sheffield Walkie Talkie, London
Pediatrician, stress researcher Gösta Alfvén
Unhealthy architecture In the book Unhealthy architecture (2016), Gösta Alfvén analyses the effects of the built environment to our health, focusing especially on the failures of the post-functionalist (esp. 1960s ) ideology and consequences of abandoning the (classical) tradition that had been built during thousands of years Neighbourhoods with many ugly houses create a selective vicious circle: those that have a choice will not stay ugly environments are not felt worth caring about ugly environments gradually become unwanted ghettoes with inhabitants that do not have a choice By not taking the human need for attractive, beautiful environments into consideration, we are deliberately creating more ugliness with the negative consequences that we have evidence of It is important to create attractive neighbourhoods where humans like to live in
Physical health Mirja Salkinoja-Salonen, professor of microbiology (University of Helsinki), professor of building physics (Aalto University, School of Engineering) Recent studied on the disastrous effects our current building materials, building practices, even building guidelines, have on our physical health Finland ranks #1 in the emergence of 7 autoimmune diseases The healthy option: to return to using simple, massive, hygroscopic natural materials and practices with known positive health effects (clay, log, stone)
Need for change?
Larry Beasley professor, urbanist, former Director of Planning for the City of Vancouver People usually hate urban density because it is often poorly implemented, ugly and not humane. * "Human scale views, humanity, should be the most important objective in creating liveable urban places. * "Older neighbourhoods loved by people should be the inspiration for designing new, loveable, liveable places."
Revival of classical tradition in the 21st century Most people have an intuitive ability to identify and make a distinction between beauty and ugliness in the built environment Studies on the most beautiful places or buildings predominantly show the human preference towards the pre-modernist (before 1950s), variations of environments based on the classical tradition Classical tradition is an architectural philosophy and a set of rules on how to design sustainable buildings and cities from a human point of view Classical tradition is not a style, but helps to compose buildings with proportions, harmony, symmetry appealing to human perspective Environments built according to classical tradition are generally more liveable, denser, walkable, environmentally friendly and less car-dependent than those based on the modernist tradition predominant since the 1960s We are currently seeing a strengthening revival of building in classical tradition, for example in Germany, UK, USA
Principles of classical tradition in architecture Buildings and the built environment should be: Beautiful appealing to human senses, worth caring for Enduring worth beyond a mere function, built to last Functional current usage and adaptability for new usages These qualities have an effect on the way people feel and also bring economic added value In many cases it seems these timeless principles have been lost, and we see ugly, boring, disposable, unfunctional new buildings and environments instead
Guiding line Urban infill, new buildings especially in historic neighbourhoods should strive for adding beauty and harmony instead of ugliness and contrast.
Urban infill - blending in or sticking out Old part (left), new (right) Old part (right), new (left)
Sticking out Old Rauma, UNESCO World Heritage Site, Late 1960s
Blending in Old Rauma, UNESCO World Heritage Site, 2016
New buildings adding beauty and harmony Tallinn 2016
New buildings adding beauty Tallinn 2014
New buildings adding beauty and harmony Dresden, Neumarkt, 2016 New houses in the old city square. Rebuilding the area destroyed in WWII.
New buildings adding beauty and harmony Berlin, 2016
New buildings adding beauty and harmony Berlin 2016
New buildings adding beauty and harmony Växjö, Sweden, 2007
Conclusions The built (and unbuilt) environments affect our health, both mental and physical Call to action: collaboration options? E-mail: marjo.uotila@iki.fi