Happy by Design: A Guide to Architecture and Mental Wellbeing

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As issues around physical and mental wellbeing become more prominent in the media and wider society, ‘Happy by Design’ offers design tips and tricks to everyone from property developers, architects, stay at home parents, university students or the recently retired, and outlines simple ways they can make rooms, homes or offices happier places to be in. We work with small businesses as an extension of their team, offering high quality web design, maintenance and SEO services and plain English, no-nonsense support. Ben’s book shows us how deeply affected by our environments we are and describes the important steps and considerations needed to design effectively for wellbeing. Presented through a series ofeasy-to-understand design tips and accompanied by beautiful diagrams andillustrations, Happy by Design is a fantastic resource for architects,designers and students, or for anybody who would like to better understand therelationship between buildings and happiness.

From the paint color that’s been named the happiest to the science of getting a good night’s sleep, Happy by Design offers bite-sized and affordable design ideas that are accessible to all—from a young renter in an urban apartment to a busy family in their own home. Given that we spend over 80% of our time in buildings, shouldn’t we have a better understanding of how they make us feel? From sparking joy in individual homes and workplaces to encouraging healthier lifestyles through landscaping and urban design, this book demonstrates how wellbeing concepts can be integrated across a range of scales and typologies.

As a society, we’re paying more and more attention to the things that will bring us lasting health and happiness. Also known as The Mindful Architect, Channon explains his own motivation for producing the book: “I wanted to create something that was accessible, functional and empowering. I’ve noticed dramatic changes in my mental wellbeing and positivity when I’ve had to live or work in an unpleasant space. I found that developers and operators were becoming increasingly interested in the wellbeing of their residents –albeit this was mainly physical, rather than mental wellbeing. For anyone interested in the power of human centric and people-focused design, this publication will be a highly anticipated and extremely timely guide.

Here at Joseph Homes, we’re always looking into the mood-enhancing qualities of different colours and putting our findings into practice. Thank you for your comment – I wrote this article, however, the author of the Happy by Design guide is Ben Channon. However, as will be discussed later in this book, views outwards offer many other benefits in terms of mental wellbeing.

By taking this straightforward approach, I hope the book will be more accessible to all of us, not simply architects. This may sound simplistic but designing for people should be the fundamental approach of all architects – as proven by many of the greats from the twentieth century, such as Alvar Aalto and Louis Kahn. Founded, resourced and content managed by B Corp Certified comms agency Content Coms, our mission is to drive a deeper understanding of the impact that buildings can have our mental and physical health. As humans, we’re drawn to nature and open space, largely because close proximity to nature has been shown to improve our mood and reduce stress. Published by the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA), Happy by Design aims to inspire and motivate architects to design for the human experience, while also appealing to the wider public.

Of course, there are those who’ll disagree with him, arguing that our homes aren’t responsible for improving us as people. During this time, I realised that mental health issues can affect anyone – regardless of creed, class or colour and that the mental wellbeing implications of design were mostly being ignored within the study and practice of architecture. His book is a powerful reminder not to get caught up in overthinking things, but to focus instead on maximising what actually delivers joy . It reveals how architecture and design can make us happy and support mental health and explains how poor design can have the opposite effect.Your business concept and ideas were so inspiring it was a pleasure to help you bring HomeGrown PR to life! Happy by Design’ has already been endorsed by some of architecture’s key figures including Grand Designs’ Kevin McCloud who says that “anyone building a house should read this first. This guide is designed to help students understand what a 'site analysis' is and why it is valuable to their design proposals, this book provides 100 easy-to-follow rules of thumb with simple line drawings and illustrations to help.

As somebody who thinks and learns in a visual way, these books really spoke to me and I wanted to recreate some of this feel to share with readers in Happy by Design. Discover a new online audience and watch your business grow, as we help your business to engage through social media and digital marketing. When designing buildings, it is therefore extremely important to consider how you can improve both the quantity and quality of daylight, internally and within landscaping. With everything that’s happened in the last two years, now more than ever it is vital that we all understand the ways in which buildings and cities affect how we feel. If you have the choice between materials, furniture or ornaments that feel either machine or hand-made, opt for the latter.Each chapter of ‘Happy by Design’, out on RIBA Publishing, covers a specific area of design and interior design that needs to be considered, such as light, nature and materials. Grand Designs presenter and creator of HAB Housing, Kevin McCloud, also praised Happy by Design, saying that “anyone building a house should read this first, as should every single developer.