Why Architecture Matters

“We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.” This quote by Winston Churchill refers to the restoration of the House of Commons after being bombed in 1941. On the Culturist’s latest blog post he wrote: “This quote gets to a deep-rooted truth about architecture. The spaces we inhabit have a significant impact on us. Some buildings fill you with awe, while others depress you. But why is that?” He offers proof below of the deleterious effect of the modernization of a building. This topic resonated with me and hope it will with you.

Accounting for several factors, the rise of skyscrapers and modern structures invading historically distinguished cities, researchers have begun to monitor how our mental states and moods are affected.

Three Examples Among Many

As a child I remember driving by the Pruitt-Igoe housing complex in St. Louis. The stark, thirty-three apartment blocks of the 1950s were separated by spaces between each building. There kids, like me, were supposed to imagine the great outdoors and their families form community. By 1972, the buildings were demolished due to crime, squalor, and social dysfunction.

Closer to home, I’m not alone in finding the Seattle Central Library’s one-way escalators that transport you from the ground floor into the upper floors with no obvious means of descent as unpleasant. The whole building is designed with an edgy aspect. And then I found the Red Floor that features 13 shades of red paint on the walls, ceiling, floors and stairs. I couldn’t wait to get out of there; never mind the extensive book collections.

The city of Vancouver, British Columbia, rates high with both visitors and residents. The downtown building policies are geared toward making sure that there is a view of the mountains, forest, and ocean to the north and west. One theory on the positive reaction is that visual access to natural environments serves as a mental balm.

According to Michael Bond, a features correspondent for the BBC, “People are strongly affected by building facades. If the façade is complex and interesting, it affects people in a positive way; negatively if it is monotonous.” He gives as an example, leading a group of subjects past the long smoked-glass frontage of a Whole Foods store in Lower Manhattan, their arousal and mood states took a dive according to their wristband readings. They also walked faster to get out of the dead zone and felt more engaged and uplifted when they walked through an older, established neighborhood.

Contemporary Concerns

The sense of isolation and distance from the land has been one of the key features of modern, novelty architecture. James  Howard Kunstler offers “The eyesore of the month” on his long-running website. The building below is one of the few positive discoveries in his multi-year collection.

“Finally, the new owners who bought it out of foreclosure did the honorable thing and saved it, and returned it to its former glory. It looks like it will be re-purposed as a hotel. Kudos to ya!”

Below is quite the opposite in Jersey City, New Jersey. “What a fine old thing the St. Lucy’s Church is, its towers and turrets aspiring to the heavens! Plus the plan for a 444-unit building.” God help us might be an apt reaction.

Kunstler is also the author of The Geography of Nowhere that traces America’s evolution from a nation of Main Streets and coherent communities to a land where every place is like no place in particular. The book is a wake-up call for citizens to reinvent the places where we live and work, to build communities that are once again worthy of our affection.

One More Concern – It’s Local and It’s Everywhere

Like many places that have become destinations for people fleeing overly crowded and crime-infested cities, the impact is on a lack of housing. Where I live there are several parts of the city that represent times past: the historic village, the streets named for trees, and the letter streets.

One answer to the housing crisis is Infill. Infill involves building new homes and apartments on vacant or underutilized lots. Even the smallest triangle at the end of a street is fair game for a small condo. On the plus side, infill can reduce urban sprawl, save much of the area’s farmland and forests from large housing projects. Infill minimizes the environmental impact by utilizing what’s there in terms of existing services like electricity and sewer.

In most neighborhoods, however, the focus is less on single-family homes and more on condos and apartment buildings. My city used to have a height limit of three stories, but now six or seven floor apartment buildings have sailed through the planning commission. Infill often means taking out long-established trees, ditching old-fashioned setbacks, and hanging metal baskets to serve as decks big enough for maybe two chairs and a flower pot.

I love the touch of nature the builder created for this building, especially those little bushes who will have to make it without sun. They do, however, receive plenty of moisture from dogs walking by. Maybe it was karma, but the sunny side of this loft apartment was later blocked by an even bigger, taller apartment building.

More serious issues of infill development are how much existing infrastructure is there to support sizeable additions? This includes air quality while sitting in your basket above car, bus, and truck exhaust, the lack of trees, and the assumption that high-end condo owners will limit their cars and ride public transit. There are more cars trying to move through neighborhoods on streets not built for that many vehicles. Maybe this is why looking at your phone when you walk around is preferable to looking at what has happened to the lack of calming architecture.

What can a community do to achieve an intricate balance between modernization and the preservation of a neighborhood’s character and infrastructure?

Here are a few actions that might make a difference. Get involved with various aspects of local government including the planning department, a local historic preservation association, museums that celebrate local history, and active citizen groups. For example, what my newspaper calls the “tree people organization” put a stop to a development that wanted to take out over 300 mature trees. Find out what current restrictions are in place for infill, especially if you have an open lot near you, and attend governmental department public meetings where height, noise, setbacks, parking, and tree preservation are on the agenda.

SOURCES for this post include:

• The Culturist; This publication exists to rediscover the Truth, Beauty, and Goodness of our past, and explore how it might relate to modern life. We write about art, literature, music, and cultural and religious history. https://www.theculturist.io
• Sciencedirect.com Researchers found…How does the built enviro….
• The BBC: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170605-the-psychology-behind-your-citys-design  The hidden ways that architecture affects how you feel. 5 June 2017 Michael Bond, Features correspondent.
• James Howard Kunstler’s clusterfucknation posts and eyesore of the month at https://www.kunstler.com/ 

Photo credits: Colorful mass of buildings – BBC, Colorful pretend city – swati-b.