Does architecture affect your mood?

 

Winston Churchill, in 1943 said, "We shape our buildings only for them to shape us." This was later supported by many psychologists and neuroscientists. So does architecture affect your mood?

 

Yes, it does. Over the course of 70 years, neuroscientists and psychologists worked on this and gathered up a lot of evidence to back up Winston's musings. They have found that there are specialized cells in the hippocampal part of our brain that is aware of the change, geometry, and the arrangement of the space we are in.

 

Psychological studies have shown us about the effects on our mood because of the design and space and have acknowledged us about the kind of urban places people find more appealing. But do architects ignore this?

It is quite possible for architects to not care about this but most cities like Tokyo have made this obligatory.

 

In the 1950s, Minoru Yamasaki built 33 featureless, boring apartment blocks in the Pruitt- Igoe housing complex in St Louis, Missouri. That place quickly became responsible for crime, squalor, and social dysfunction. They were eventually demolished in 1972 because critics argued that the lack of open space and the grey, colorless vibe gave rise to crime.

 

So, are there any architects in India that take care of this? Yes, there are plenty like the Sarayan best architects in Mumbai. Companies like these have architects that design houses, offices, cafes, hospitals, etc. in colorful and comfortable ways. For instance, let's take an example of Sarayan top architects in Mumbai, their designs are observed to have various colors that enhance mood and create a sense of open space.

 

Studying all this gave rise to neuro-architecture, which showed that places do affect our moods that in return affect our behavior. "We are the creatures of places we are put in" quoted by Jeffrey.