Spatial Design Stimuli to Promote Wellness through Buildings’ Design

Abstract

Mental Health problems are remarkably increasing in the UK, where people are facing di˙erent challenges day after day, including stresses from everyday life. Out of a deep belief that architecture can play a significant role in supporting users’ wellbeing, instead of augmenting their stresses, this paper analyzes an extensive multidisciplinary literature review, of 720 sources, from three di˙erent disciplines: psychology, medicine and architecture. The analyzed literature studies the relationship between users’ wellbeing and the surrounding spatial environment. The investigation aims to identify a set of possible architectural design parameters that can a˙ect users’ psychological wellbeing. The analysis identified fifteen spatial psychologically supportive design stimuli (PSDS); each of them was subject of further procedures of in-depth analysis queries that aim to define their main characteristics, impacts on users’ psychology and wellbeing, and their influences within the design of public buildings. The study aims to benefit the development of psychologically considerate built environment design, as well as identifying potential research routes for future spatial qualitative researches.