Spatial narratives of happiness in everyday environments

Abstract

The current literature in architecture and urban studies has neglected to adequately address people’s demand for happiness. This study was conducted to better enable architects, urban designers and researchers, as well as community activists and decision makers to understand the nuances of multi-level spatial properties that affect user emotive experiences and happiness. The study informs our theoretical understanding of spatial happiness by presenting a robust reference in place-based happiness studies introducing a critical catalogue of previous work and potential connotations in other disciplines.

Additionally, a qualitative method toolkit hitherto lacking, is provided to inform our empirical understanding of people’s narratives of spatial happiness. Can urban environment make us happier? If so, to what extent and in what ways is our happiness related to the built environment? How do spatial sounds affect our moods and happiness and what are the sonic values of a happy place? What spatial elements kindle positive experiences and invite happiness for children? And finally, what is our spatial vision for the cities that will not only accommodate our physical needs but also provide a setting that will nurture strong communities and enable them to flourish? The research shows that there are no ultimate happy cities, but cities could always become happier. Happy cities, similar to the notion of happiness, are a process of becoming, and a journey rather than a destination. Happy places provide physical and emotional comfort and promote health and wellbeing while encourage positive and meaningful experiences and encounters. This study explores diverse viewpoints, narratives and approaches that promote spatial qualities such as encounter-ability or utilising wellbeing functions and visual and sonic expectations of place with emphasis on methods that can encourage systematic local approaches rather than universal remedies. The study participants provided positive narrations of flow-inducing places including places that ease the engagement of all senses as well as the natural settings including waterfronts and greenspaces. The results also shed light on the role of memories on positive or negative affect generated by users’ individual and social recollections and the happiness that could stem from familiarity, attachment or taking pride in a place. Furthermore, urban settings that facilitate social connection and provide infrastructures of citywide attempts at setting identity or expressing people’s anxieties and desires to the mechanisms of power were appreciated by the study’s participants. The significance of this study is in recognising that collaborating closely with people who have lived experience of spatial settings remains essential to ensure that the undertaking research and designing solutions fit people’s requirements and hopes. The study, involving more than 100 participants in exploratory methods, was able to put in context a set of professional practices that demonstrate the role these methods could play in design and architecture and how we can combine social and spatial values with research and intervention; for the challenging yet rewarding recognition of spatial happiness.