06 ARCHITECTURE: THE ANSWER TO LIFE’S EMOTIONAL EQUATION

How Residential Architecture and the Built Environment can Change Our Quality of Life

ARCH 498-499| Honors Thesis Seminar | Fall 2022- Spring 2023 | In Progress

Instructor: Hans Joachim (Hajo) Neis Ph.D.

Deliverable: Thesis Paper

Contributions: Reaserch

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. How do People View Homes now?

3. The Decline of Architecture

4. Humans Relationship to Nature: Intro to Biophilic Design

5. How Architecture and Design Scientifically Effects Humans

6.How Should We Design Our Residences: An Emotional Pattern Langugae

Quality of Life Cycle

As humans, we spend the majority of our time in or around buildings. To go further, the entirety of human life is spent in the built environment, whether outside or in. Regardless of the environment, closed or open air, humans function because of the structures that allow them the space to do so. In the days of the neanderthal, humans had to adapt to their environments. However, in today’s world, humans are adapting their own environments to better fit their needs. In fact, Winston Churchill famously said, “We shape our buildings, and after, our buildings shape us.”

Our surrounding environments not only affect our mental psyche in the long term, but they also play pivotal roles in our short and medium-term wellness or unwellness. Therefore, architecture, specifically residential architecture and the built environment, possess the power to alter our quality of life.

More people are buying and renting which means there should be more emphasis on how we are designing their residences.