Bostad, atmosfär och välbefinnande: Mot en ökad förståelse kring sambanden mellan hälsa och bostadens arkitektur

Licentiate thesis, 2017

Current research within healthcare architecture has shown that how our built environments are designed affects our capacities for healing. However, far less is explored, developed and known in the field of residential architecture and how it influences well-being. In the light of the growing knowledge of how spaces influence our emotions and physical reactions we need to know more about how residential spaces act upon our abilities to heal and to improve our health conditions. This licentiate thesis recognizes this need, and intends to explore how residential architectural design contribute to residents' sense of wellbeing and health. As a tool to understand the interplay between human beings and the built environment, the concept of Atmosphere is used, which has been proposed as a way to describe architectural quality. In case study 1 and 2, this concept is adopted to perform a semantic concept analysis with a subsequent contextual concept determination through a theoretical study of an unbuilt apartment. The results from these analyses form part of the theoretical basis for case study 3 where deep interviews are conducted with residents in order to explore and to analyze connections between residential architecture and health. The thesis recognizes the growing body of knowledge in particular within neurosciences concerning attributes critical for our perception and spatial orientation and their physiological and emotional effects. It also recognizes a spectrum of theories related to health. The concluding analysis focuses on identifying and developing concepts that describe aspects of residential architecture of significant importance for residents' sense of wellbeing while using results from the conducted deep interviews and applying various other theoretical perspectives on health. The thesis suggests Atmosphere could be regarded as a protector of wellbeing. The surrounding building envelope and the various spatial layers of the home are of particular interest in shaping conditions for creating an environment that promotes wellbeing. Different phenomena, tools and spatial properties are put forward as suggestions of how these aspects could be integrated in residential design. The results of the research are intended to provide a better understanding of the connections between residential architecture, atmosphere, wellbeing and health. This knowledge should be implemented in future residential architectural design processes.