Happiness in place and space: Exploring the contribution of architecture and interior architecture to happiness

Celebration Contemplation, 10th International Conference on Design Emotion 27 30 September 2016, Amsterdam Introduction 'Happiness' or 'well being' is one of the major, if not the ultimate goal, for every human being. Studying happiness is very important, relevant and timely because of several reasons. Firstly, there seems to be a societal need to focus on the well being and happiness of people. In various industrial democracies, large groups of people continuously seem to have (had) the possibilities to fulfil their material needs and wants, and they start longing for other issues. Hence the growing interest of people to pay the necessary time, effort and attention to the fulfilment of immaterial aspects in life, their reappreciation of the search for and fulfilment of personal values, a good work life balance, a healthy life etcetera. However, although people have the possibilities and the willingness to work on their well being and happiness, research (Easterlin, 1974 Veenhoven, 1993) learns that measures of average happiness result in rather stationary data, in spite of people's increased possibilities. In academic literature, this phenomenon is known as the 'Easterlin Paradox' (Di Tella &MacCulloch, 2008) Secondly, from an economic point of view, paying attention to happiness seems highly relevant. Happy people seem to be successful in many domains of life, and these successes are at least in part due to their happiness. Happy people are more social, altruistic, and active, they like themselves more as well as others, they have healthy bodies and immune systems, and better conflict resolution skills. In addition, happiness seems to promote people's capacity for constructive and creative thinking (Lyubomirsky et al. 2005b) These are all important issues and qualities of people that our industries and economies need today to face all kinds of challenges that lie ahead of us all. Thirdly, taking into account these perspectives, happiness has also become an issue on the political agenda. In 2011, the General Assembly of the United Nations accepted a resolution wherein they appealed to UN member states to undertake steps to give more attention to the pursuit of happiness of their citizens when determining how to achieve and measure social and economic development in their country (United Nations, 2011) In this respect, Bhutan is often a reference country: their 'Gross National Happiness Index' states that sustainable development should take a holistic view towards progress, and should give equal importance to non economic aspects of well being and happiness. In Bhutan, one wants to stimulate the set up of initiatives that aim to increase the percentage of happy people and decrease the unsatisfactory conditions of unhappy people. Recently, in 2013, UN Secretary General Ban Ki moon pointed again to the importance of attention for people's well being and happiness. In his Note to the General Assembly (2013, p. 3) he indicated that 'the creation of an enabling environment for improving people's well being is a development goal in itself' This paper aims to propose a first answer to his call, as it aims to reflect on the concrete contribution that architecture and interior architecture can have in designing 'enabling Abstract Do architecture and interior architecture contribute to the happiness of people? Do these design disciplines have a role to play in enhancing possibilities for people to work on their happiness? To answer these questions, the first section of this paper discusses different factors that contribute to happiness: genetics, life circumstantial factors and intentional activities. Next, these factors are refined specifically from the viewpoint of architecture and interior architecture, whereby it is demonstrated how these disciplines can be considered as a life circumstantial factor that contributes to happiness. In the second section, a selection of techniques for exploring happiness and gaining insight in different factors contributing to happiness are discussed. Here, the authors discuss the set up and use of a 'Happiness Circle' an exploratory tool which they developed in order to gain insight in the specific contribution that architecture and interior architecture can have regarding happiness. The results of an exploratory study wherein 212 research participants were involved demonstrate that architecture and interior architecture have a role to play in determining people's happiness, which opens various promising opportunities for future design projects.