Well-Being as the Function of architecture

1. Well-Being as the Function of architecture Glasgow, 8 04 2019 J. Adam Carter, Christoph Kelp, Patricia popescu, Mona simion

2. INtro • What is the function of architecture? • What is good architecture? • Today: • We argue the function of architecture is to design spaces that generate wellbeing. • We argue that the success condition for architectural projects is acquiring the corresponding etiological function. • We show how to implement these results in design.

3. INtro Outline • Architectural Manifestos and Evaluations • Well-Being as the Function of Architecture • From Design Function to Etiological Function • Empirical Support • From Theory to Practice

4. Architectural Manifestos and Evaluations

5. Architectural Manifestos and Evaluations • The architectural manifesto plays a central part in architectural evaluative practice • Architectural manifestoes provide standards of evaluation for architecture • Problem: conflicting manifestoes, conflicting standards.

6. Architectural Manifestos and Evaluations Quinlan Terry: But thegentlestandrarestspeciesarethecreativegiftof Art andthefearoftheCreator; bothofwhich, speakinggenerally, havedisappeared . . . I do not knowhowtoexplainthisphenomenon, exceptbyrelatingthis lack ofcreativegifttotheCreator. The buildingoftheTabernacleshowedthatwhenmankindrejectsthe belief in theCreator, thenhiscreativeabilitydisappears. Never before in thehistoryoftheworldhas man beenablewtorejectGod so completelyandsuccessfully . . . In theolddayspeoplebuiltasHawksmoorbuilt in Oxford’sRadcliffeCamera. Nobody canfailtonoticethe exquisite proportions, the genial useoftheClassical Orders, thenaturalmaterials, human scaleandaccomplishedharmonyandhowitfits in withitssurroundings. Today webuildskyscraperswhichlooklikeoilrefinerieseschewingnaturalmaterialsworkingwithno sense ofproportionandwithnoharmonyorgrace. Buildingslikethesecannotbecomparedwiththebuildingsofourforefathers. The abilityto design andbuildbeautifulbuildingshasceased. [Terry 1989: 193-94]

7. Architectural Manifestos and Evaluations Coop Himmelblau Youcanjudge just howbadthe 70s werewhenyoulookatits super tensearchitecture. Opinion pollsandcomplacentdemocracy live behind Biedermeier-facades. But wedon’twanttobuild Biedermeier. Not nowandatnoother time. Wearetiredofseeing Palladio andotherhistoricalmasks. Becausewedon’twantarchitecturetoexcludeeverythingthatisdisquieting. Wewantarchitecturetohavemore. Architecturethatbleeds, thatexhausts, thatwhirlsandevenbreaks. Architecturethatlightsup, thatstings, that rips, andunder stress, tears. Architectureshouldbecavernous, fiery, smooth, hard, angular, brutal, round, delicate, colorful, obscene, voluptuous, dreamy, alluring, repelling, wet, dry andthrobbing. Aliveordead. Cold - thencoldas a block ofice. Hot - thenhotas a blazingwing. Architecture must blaze. [Coop Himmelblau 1980: 276]

8. Architectural Manifestos and Evaluations Entirely different standards for good and bad architecture: • Terry: good architecture is harmonic • Coop Himmelblau: criticises architecture that excludes everything disquieting Terry and Coop Himmelblau are but examples of a variety of standards accepted by various architects/theorists of architecture. • Central question: Who is right? What are the correct standards of evaluation in architecture?

9. Well-Being as the Function of Architecture

10. Well-Being as the Function of Architecture • Standards of evaluation for a functional item (artifact/trait/practice) can be derived from its function: An artifact/trait/practice X is a good (attr.)* token of its type iff X reliably fulfills its function (in normal conditions). Ex.: • Cutting is the function of knives; a good (attr.) knife is a knife that cuts reliably in normal conditions. • Pumping blood is the function of hearts; a good (attr.) heart is a heart that pumps blood reliably in normal conditions. * Attributive goodness, a la Geach (1956).

11. Well-Being as the Function of Architecture • Architecture is a functional practice (a practice with an aim). Q: What is the function of the practice of architecture? • Etiological Function (EF): A token of type T has the e-function of type B of producing effect E in system S iff (1) tokens of T produced E in the past, (2) producing E resulted in benefit of type B in S/S’s ancestors and (3) producing E’s having B-benefitted S’s ancestors contributes to the explanation of why T exists in S. (adapted from Graham (2012), Millikan (1984)) • Ex.: my heart: (1) Tokens of the type pumped blood in my ancestors.(2) This was biologically beneficial for my ancestors’ survival, which (3) contributes to the explanation of why tokens of the type continue to exist. • Function of the heart: pumping blood.

12. Well-Being as the Function of Architecture • Note: Two important features of e-functions: • Success condition • Positive feedback loop: the generated benefit contributes to the explanation of the continuous existence of the trait/artefact/practice. • For a practice P to acquire the e-function of phi-ing, it needs to be the case that • P reliably phi’s in normal conditions (the success condition) • phi-ing is beneficial to the system P is inhabiting, which, in turn, contributes to the explanation of P’s continuous existence.

13. Well-Being as the Function of Architecture • Proposal: The e-function of architecture: designing spaces that reliably generate well-being. Meets EF: • Success condition. • Explains the continuous existence of the practice.

14. From Design Function to Etiological Function

15. From Design Function to Etiological Function Q2: What is a good (attr.) architectural product? • Crucial Distinction: design function vs. etiological function • Design function (d-function) need not imply success: Museum of Failure in Sweden. • At the same time, many items with d-functions also acquire e-functions. Consider, in particular, new products which are launched on a competitive market. • Architectural products may have the d-function of generating well-being, but fail to have the e-function.

16. From Design Function to Etiological Function Proposal: a good (attr.) architectural product is one that has the e-function of reliably generating well-being. Widely endorsed neo-Aristotelian account of well-being: multi-dimensional (Eudaimonia): • We are complex systems: we function well when all our sub-systems function well. • Well-being: complex phenomenon: intellectual, moral& social, emotional, physical. • Upshot: a good (attr.) architectural product is one that has the e-function of reliably generating well-being along all these dimensions.

17. From Design Function to Etiological Function Two Upshots for Theory of Architecture • Negative upshot: what it is for an architectural product to be a good architectural product is an empirical matter, not the proper subject of manifestos in the theory of architecture: it’s a matter of actual reliable success in generating well-being in the target population. • Positive upshot: this result is compatible with many architectural implementations, trends etc, insofar as the function is fulfilled: different levels of abstraction.

18. From Design Function to Etiological Function Possible Objection: Even if this is right, there is a second function of architecture: to aesthetically educate the general population. • Architectural manifestos and their implementations aim at aesthetic education: buildings as speech acts (aesthetic expert testimony). Response 1: problem: epistemic defeat from disagreement. Response 2: unrealistic, simplistic view of aesthetic education. • Merely exposing the general population to architectural products of a particular type cannot generate aesthetic education. • Aesthetic appreciation is a recognitional skill: roughly, the skill of recognising the beautiful from the ugly. • Skill development is educating for ‘know-how,’ not for ‘know-that.’

19. From Design Function to Etiological Function • Two varieties of know-how: infinitivalvs non-infinitival know-how. knowing how to ride a bikevs knowing how the toaster works. • Two varieties of infinitival know-how. Deontic infinitival know-how vs. non-deontic infinitival know-how: knowing how one does something vs. knowing how to do something. • Developing aesthetic recognitional skills: acquiring non-deontic infinitival know-how. Knowing how to recognise beauty. • Problem: non-deontic non-infinitival know-how cannot be transmitted via testimony (ex: ride a bike). • Upshot: aesthetic education cannot be done by merely exposing the general population to expert testimony via architectural products.

20. Empirical Support

21. Empirical Support Intellectual Well-Being • spaces should be epistemically friendly, i.e. they should make it easy for people to know how to navigate them. • Kate Jeffery (behavioural neuroscience, UCL Institute for Behavioural Neuroscience), who studies navigation in rats and other animals: “to feel connected to a place you need to know how things relate to each other spatially. In other words, you need a sense of direction.” (http://www.jeffery-lab.net/)

22. Empirical Support Intellectual Well-Being • Northumbria University’sRuth Conroy Dalton (architecture and cognitive neuro-science), on Seattle Central Library: “I find it fascinating that a place so universally admired by architects … can be so dysfunctional. One of the issues with the library is the huge one-way escalators that sweep visitors from the ground floor into the upper reaches with no obvious means of descent. I think there was a desire by the architects to try and thwart expectations and be a bit edgy. Unfortunately when it comes to navigation, our expectations are there for a good reason. There are very few situations in the real world where you can go from A to B via one route and you’re forced to take a different route from B back to A. That really confuses people.”  (in 2018, Handbook of Behavioral and Cognitive Geography, ed. Montello D.R.)

23. Empirical Support Moral & Social Well-Being • Spaces should nudge people together, generate social bonding • John T. Cacioppo (cognitive neuroscience, U. Chicago): social connection is crucial to wellbeing. Over tens of thousands of years our need to deal with other people fundamentally influenced the structure of the human brain. In a literal sense, the need to socialise and connect made us who we are today. • Jane-Frances Kelly (public policy), Grattan Institute Australia: “Humans are social animals: relationships are critical to our wellbeing. A lack of social connection leads to loneliness and isolation, experiences far more harmful than previously realised.” (Cacioppo, J. T., & Patrick, W. (2008). Loneliness: Human nature and the need for social connection. New York, NY, US: W W Norton & Co. Social Cities Report, 2012https://grattan.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/137_report_social_cities_web.pdf

24. Empirical Support Moral & Social Well-Being • William Whyte (sociology, Cornell U.) advises urban planners to arrange objects and artefacts in public spaces in ways that nudged people physically closer together and made it more likely they would talk to each other, a process he called “triangulation”. • According to Whyte, social life in public spaces contributes fundamentally to the quality of life of individuals and society as a whole, and that, thus, architecture has a moral responsibility to create spaces that facilitate community interaction.   (Public Spaces Project https://www.pps.org/article/wwhyte)

25. Empirical Support Emotional and Physical Well-Being: • Studies done in virtual reality suggest that most people feel better in rooms with curved edges and rounded contours than in sharp-edged rectangular rooms. (Caveat: tellingly perhaps, the design students among the participants preferred the opposite) (Shemesh, A., Talmon, R., Karp, O., Amir, I., Bar, M. and Grobman, J.Y. (2017). Affective response to architecture – investigating human reaction to spaces with different geometry. Architectural Science Review vol. 60/2)

26. Empirical Support Emotional and Physical Well-Being: Colin Ellard (neuroscience, U. of Waterloo), studies 1. architecture's impact emotional wellbeing and 2. the subsequent impact on physical wellbeing.   Main findings: • people are strongly affected by building façades. If the façade is complex and interesting, it affects people in a positive way; negatively if it is simple and monotonous. http://cdn.bmwguggenheimlab.org/TESTING_TESTING_BMW_GUGGENHEIM_LAB_2013_2.pdf

27. Empirical Support Emotional and Physical Well-Being: • Greener spaces generate increased wellbeing • More green spaces in the city! A study by Richard Mitchell (U. of Glasgow, Public Health and Health Policy) and Frank Popham (Geoscience, U. of St. Andrews) found that the health effects of inequality, which tends to increase the risk of circulatory disease among those lower down the socioeconomic scale, are far less pronounced in greener areas.   • Easy access to green spaces reduces health effects of inequality: http://cdn.bmwguggenheimlab.org/TESTING_TESTING_BMW_GUGGENHEIM_LAB_2013_2.pdf (Mitchell, R. and Popham, F. (2008)Effect of Exposure to Natural Environment on Health Inequalities: An Observational Population Study. The Lancet Vol. 372/9650)

28. From Theory to Practice

29. From Theory to Practice ERDING 1,700,000 visitors / year • Therme Group ™ • develops, plans, builds and operates some of the most advanced and complex thermal leisure facilities in the world • Wellness experience + rethinking new ways to achive well-bein • Research-lead investments • Projects developed with focus on understading the local identity, the city’s vision for the future TITISEE 650,000 visitors / year Existing facilities BUCHAREST 1,200,000 visitors / year SINSHEIM 700,000 visitors / year THERME PROJECTS IN EUROPE • Total visitors since opening: over 40 Million • Total annual visitors: 6 Million Visitors / Year EUSKIRCHEN 700,000 visitors / year

30. From Theory to Practice ONGOING PROJECTS • More than 8 Million expected visitors/year from 2020 • 1,5 - 3Million Visitors / Year per each new facility Ongoing projects MANCHESTER 1,300,000 visitors / year BEIJING 2,400,000 visitors / year TORONTO 2,100,000 visitors / year BUCHAREST GENESIS (extension) +400,000 visitors / year CHONGQUING 2,600,000 visitors / year SINGAPORE 2,100,000 visitors / year

31. From Theory to Practice • Intellectual Well-Being: easy navigation • Sense of open space / Sense of direction / Freedom of navigation / Landmarks

32. From Theory to Practice • Social Well-Being • Triangulation - nudging people together/ Social interaction / Community meeting point

33. From Theory to Practice • Moral Well-Being • Moral justice – access to green space, reducing the effects of inequality; facilities in urban areas, city centers, affordable for all

34. From Theory to Practice • Physical Well-Being • Health / Preemptive health / Recovery

35. From Theory to Practice • Emotional Well-Being • Nature (sheltered, calm, stress free environments: tropical garden, rain forest, dead sea area) • All the benefits of nature without any of the contingencies of natural environments

36. From Theory to Practice • Emotional Well-Being • Intricate designs / patterns and rhythms / round facades and spaces / flowing spaces / permeability

37. Thank you!