The Humanise summit last week was packed with thought-provoking ideas about how our built environment, and specifically building facades, affect how we feel, and in turn how we behave. 

 

Held at Heatherwick Studio’s offices in King’s Cross, one of its chief proposals was that we are living in a ‘pandemic’ of boring architecture. But this wasn’t just words: it was science. Dr Rui Costa, President and CEO of the Allen Institute, in a chat with Thomas Heatherwick, Global Designer and Founder of Heatherwick Studio, explained the effect of boring buildings on our brains. ‘Too much of the same thing’ under-stimulates our brain, and it stops our visual cortex (the area of the cerebral cortex that processes visual information) from responding. As living beings, we need our brains to be engaged, and the current buildings that line our streets are being built without thought or care for the ultimate ‘client’ that cannot escape it and has to visually engage with it daily – the passer by. 

 

Heatherwick made the point that there are too many excuses for why we are building like this; cost and time being major ones when in fact, interesting buildings don’t have to be more expensive or take longer to build. We need a shift in mindset and to raise the bar for what ‘good enough’ looks like, he believes. The point was made about developing a language of interesting details that can be added without affecting the cost, with an example of a development design showcased by Mike Hood, CEO of Landsec, that stayed on budget and on time but created a much more engaging visual effect. For interesting architecture to be built, we must put emotion at the forefront of placemaking. How will people feel living / walking / shopping / spending time here? Will they want to linger, will they feel safe, will it enable a sense of community? Community engagement was presented as a key solution to turning boring into something that brings joy and a sense of pride. Places and buildings that residents are proud of, and that generate positive feelings, are born from community involvement and skills contribution, creating a sense of ownership. Places that generate positive emotions enable happier, healthier people, with a consensus that effectively, ‘health is wealth’.  

 

There was talk of babies (yes, babies!), and the lessons they can teach us about what makes a building interesting. Turns out, babies know best! Professor Anna Franklin, Lead of the Sussex Colour Group and the Sussex Baby Lab explained infant gaze patterns correlate with adult aesthetic judgement. Franklin discovered how, by using eye-tracking when showing pictures of buildings, babies’ gaze lingered for longer on designs that were visually stimulating buildings with detailing such as arches, columns, towers, as opposed to plain-looking, modern, flat facades. This was followed by an insightful presentation by Alexandros A Lavdas, PhD, Senior Researcher, Eurac Research, raising the question of what adults really want to see. Lavdas made the point that structures that correspond with the geometry of nature, i.e. unique, irregular, imperfect, are universally more interesting and engaging to look at, and that this ‘newfound ideology is actually a once self-evident but forgotten truth’. 

 

The day wasn’t just all ideas about what could and should be done. It also offered practical ways to make it happen. Hilary Satchwell, Director at Tibbalds, talked the audience through applying the Humanise principles on every project. These were divided in two: Practice -mindset and approach, where emotion should serve as a function, and public conversation should be at the forefront; and Process – project-based, pointing out the importance of considering visual complexity at door, street and city scales, as well as 1000-year thinking. 

 

The final reflections from Heatherwick were hopeful that together we can shape more interesting cities that better serve those who live in them. One conversation at a time, one project at a time, the built environment can, he said, become a force for good and a source of happiness and pride.

Learn more about the Humanise campaign here.