How the Buildings You Occupy Might Be Affecting Your Brain

Have you ever experienced a space that made you feel uneasy or stressed? Perhaps it was a noisy and crowded shopping mall, with its neon signs, patterned tilework and boldly painted walls in franchise signature colours. Or the poorly lit work carpark with flickering fluorescent lighting, low ceilings and hard concrete surfaces that made your every footstep echo. Now contrast that experience with a space that made you feel at ease. It might have been that time you were sitting at the table in your friend’s kitchen – the sun coming in through the window, warming your skin and filling the space with light; the smell of fresh coffee brewing; and the first blush of colour in the buds of the pot plants on the windowsill. Or maybe it was sitting in your favourite spot at the local library – the comfy seat in the quiet area with the high ceilings, ample natural light and a view out over the courtyard garden.

Many of us have felt the effects of being in different built environments. Yet what this means for our health and wellbeing hasn’t received enough research attention. How do the offices, houses, hospitals, schools, neighbourhoods and spaces that we occupy day to day affect our health? Traditionally, our understanding of how architectural design affects the human body has centred around the transmission of communicable diseases, such as viruses. For instance, the postwar urban redesign of the UK’s tenements worked to address overcrowded, damp and poorly ventilated housing conditions that are associated with increased rates of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis. However, the health effects of the built environment may be significantly more far-reaching than this.