20th July 2018

The power of a well-designed space

- written by Anya

All too often, a well-designed space is seen as a luxury; an indulgent extravagance rather than necessity. How wrong they all are.

“We shape our buildings and afterwards our buildings shape us.” Winston Churchill, speaking in 1943, was making a case for the sensitive repair of the bomb-ravaged House of Commons. Yet today, almost 80 years later, never has a truer word been spoken.

A wealth of research now exists proving that well-designed environments – be it homes, schools and hospitals, local coffee hangouts, or public areas – have a massive positive effect on our happiness, health and wellbeing. The benefits are impossible to ignore and if society is to be happy, engaged and productive, architecture and interior design has a leading role to play.

Benni Allan model making.

In a study carried out by the Design Council in 2002, property developer Sir Stuart Lipton, the then-chairman of the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (ironically Labour’s since defunct architecture watchdog), made clear the importance of design when it comes to a happy society. “We cannot afford not to invest in good design,” he wrote. “Good design is not just about the aesthetic improvement of our environment, it is as much about improved quality of life, equality of opportunity and economic growth. If we want to be a successful and sustainable society we have to overcome our ignorance about the importance of design and depart from our culturally-ingrained notion that a poor quality environment is the norm and all we can expect from British builders, developers, planners and politicians.”

More recently, in 2017, the Conscious Cities Conference in London considered how cognitive scientists can make their discoveries more accessible to architects. Architect Alison Brooks, who specialises in housing and social design, told the BBC 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.”

We gathered a handful of our favourite architects and designers and quizzed them on how design and architecture has the potential to change the world. Here’s what they had to say…

Mad Atelier, photography by Chatsworth.

The importance of well-designed spaces: Promoting an awareness

Sella Concept: Our surroundings constantly send messages to the brain that determine how we react, how we feel and how we take in and remember moments. It fascinates us that we can provoke these feelings through our designs. A responsibility lies with the designer to create a space that gives value to their guests as well as the local area.

Benni Allan: The opportunity to explore and promote better designed buildings and spaces is more important now than ever due to contemporary issues such as the rise in the use of technology and the effects of staying inside for prolonged amounts of time. Coupled with this is the lack of funding and attitude in the design and construction of public service buildings suitable for enhanced learning and productivity. At a more social and thought-provoking level, belief in the power of well-designed environments to inspire creativity and learning must be addressed. Designing effective buildings and spaces for the young and elderly is a social responsibility for architects, designers and policy makers, yet making wider society conscious of the effects of design in relation to learning and care environments can raise awareness, as well as bolster the quality of these spaces for generations to come.

De Beauvoir Block in Hackney by Sella Concept. All photography by Nicholas Worley.

Key considerations when designing a new space?

Sella Concept: What brings people there? What makes people stay? Do you want them to stay? We have to consider millions of questions, both conceptually and practically, on a daily basis. We love questioning our decisions. Our favourite projects are those that allow us to answer one question: how can we transport an audience?

Flexibility

Benni Allan: Offering a sense of empowerment and an ability to move freely with scope to decide how to inhabit space can influence how people engage with it. For example, empowerment in learning environments is key to a child’s experimentation and development. Places that provide space to be inquisitive and opportunities for chance and change are critical to a sense of discovery. The unique forms of these spaces can allow play as a tool for enabling different ways of learning and production. These provoke a sense of identity with the individual, choosing to interact with the elements in a capacity of both discovery and meaning making. If a person gains a sense of self while experiencing a space, they will be drawn to engage with it more positively.

Mad Atelier: A well-designed space must allow its users to seamlessly perform all of their activities. In order to do this the designer must consider the sequence of activities that define a lifestyle. If there is a fluidity to this sequence, the design exists to add another layer.

In the same vein, a designer must think of the visual connections between the various activities and the spaces dedicated to them – sometimes you need to filter or break the visual connection and sometimes you need to reinforce or even create it. It is about exploring a new progression of activities that are intuitively connected and creating an environment that allows users to think differently.

Benni Allan: La Falda panels are arranged in a mural-style composition of red and orange.

Colour and materials

Mad Atelier: The use of colour and how they are used together – playing with different tones of the same hue or contrasting colours, and experimenting with pattern – can achieve quite a granular reaction in the user's feelings, from energetic to relaxing. The chromatic sequence within rooms is very important in enhancing wellbeing.

Benni Allan: Good use of materials can positively impact people’s emotions and wellbeing. A space that allows a user’s imagination to run freely is also important and colour, used in a balanced way, can enhance wellbeing by providing inspiring yet calming environments.

Connectedness

Benni Allan: It is generally accepted that light and temperature are key in providing comfort for a building’s occupants, yet without the influence of other external factors, spaces can feel secluded and stale. While privacy is important, a relationship to the outside and others is important to stay connected and feel integral to society. The location and position of windows not only provides good levels of light but also makes strong links to others and the world around us.

Mad Atelier colour curation.

Pleasure, comfort and creativity

Mad Atelier: An important way of connecting with those engaging with a space on an emotional level is to create a means for them to recall some form of collective memory. This ensures that the space becomes somewhere that they can always return to, physically or emotionally, to feel good.

Benni Allan: Most people spend their entire lives inside buildings, and therefore it is critical for those spaces to be designed in such a way as to make the experience pleasurable and comforting. Access to daylight and sunlight provides warmth and helps support daily routines and tasks which benefits mental wellbeing and physical health. Open and uplifting spaces can provide the space necessary to move freely and allows for a positive calming environment to think, contemplate, carry out focused work, reflect and sometimes disconnect. Likewise, spaces that allow for better social interactions can be stimulating in themselves and can help to foster closer relationships with others. Encouraging and positive communal spaces are the central hub of many homes and civic spaces.

In buildings for the young and elderly, well-designed spaces are vital for empowering individuals with an environment to be and feel creative, which has shown to have direct links to a happier and healthier life. The notion of the ‘environment as the third teacher’ has offered new understandings of how space can influence the experience for learning and social empowerment. Architecture and design can support a healthier and more productive life in simple ways that doesn’t necessarily distract but quietly encourages. Functional and safe environments can help to engender stress-free and happier lives, with improved sleep and enhanced productivity

Sella Concept: In the same way that our mood can impact our creativity, our environment can emotionally stimulate.

Check out our latest projects with Mad Atelier, Sella Concept and Benni Allan.

Ports 1961 AW18 set design by estudio b, Benni Allan.

Click here to discover the other innovative makers exhibiting as part of Material of the Year at London Design Fair this September.