Affective Architecture
2021
The World Health Organization now defines health not as the absence of ill-health but as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being”. There is a global health crisis facing society with most humans currently suffering from illness or disease. Millions of people are dying unnecessarily as a result of these health problems. Many of these diseases are “lifestyle diseases”. The estimated economic costs related to ill-health are huge. The cost of mental health over the next two decades is 16 trillion dollars. Approximately 1% of the world's population has Autism, 8% suffer from PTSD, 1.2% have schizophrenia, 2.9% have bipolar disorder, and 15% suffer from depression. The definition of health has been changing and now includes an awareness of the interrelationships between social and psychological, as well as medical, factors. The way in which an individual functions in society is seen as part of the definition of health, alongside biological and physiological symptoms. What is most disconcerting is that the majority of these illnesses are related to contemporary lifestyles.
We are living in designed environments that are contributing to this ill-health. Architecture is part of the problem, but potentially a key part of the solution. As a society, we spend more than 90 percent of our lives inside buildings. Sarah Williams Goldhagen (2017), in her book, Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives, argues that the built environment has a profound impact on people's lives adding that there's no such thing as a "neutral" environment; your built environment is either helping you, or it's hurting you. The impact of the built environment on our performance, mood, behavior, emotions, and well-being, has been explored by many researchers.
In this studio, we will explore the role architecture plays in improving mental health and Well-being. This Studio will focus on designing a " Therapeutic Adaptive Health and Wellness Center”. This will be a center for diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental and physical distress and disparities and help to improve the health of people with stress, depression, anxiety (specifically after the pandemic), Autism, PTSD, etc., or physical issues. In this studio, students will explore the role of adaptive architecture in improving mental and physical health and well-being through flexibility in the space for adaptation to the social (such as pandemic) and individual needs.
To build on your knowledge in the imperative skills of architecture, you will work individually on designing a mid-rise mixed-use complex in Spokane, WA emphasizing site, building, and site context relationships. You are given a couple of sites and based on your thesis you will choose a site that aligns better with your objectives. The main elements of the program are to be developed based on your analysis of the site. As listed in our curriculum, this semester project should be a large scale urban mixed-use, Approx. 250,000 sqft.
You are also required to use mass timber as the construction material and challenged to propose innovative ways to use this material for short and long span spaces. While there have been advancements in building operations, there is a need for more sustainable rapidly renewable construction material and mass timber (cross-laminated timber, nail laminated timber, dowel laminated timber, laminated veneer lumber, and laminated strand lumber) is one of the solutions. The Inland Northwest Region has become a hotbed for mass timber with Katerra opening a CLT plant in Spokane, WA. Mass timber can meet most construction requirements for mid and high-rise buildings as opposed to stick-frame timber construction which heavily relies on concrete and steel. The argument for mass timber is that as trees grow, their capability of absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere declines. By harvesting matured trees and replanting new ones, we sequester the carbon as well as maintain the carbon-capturing cycle. The harvested trees can then be used to create mass timber products.