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Education Buildings Journal


The Architecture of Wellbeing


Lucy Plumridge Head of Education, HLM


The mental health and wellbeing of our students is reaching crisis levels.


Recent research by the Institute for Public Policy Research states that over the last 5 years there has been a fi vefold increase in university students disclosing a mental health condition. Approximately 1 in 3 females and 1 in 10 males from the 16-24 year old age category are reporting problems. Coupled with a dramatic increase in student dropouts due to mental health problems, and a steep rise in student suicides, this issue needs to be addressed urgently.


University has always been a diffi cult time for many students. Moving to an unfamiliar city whilst being separated from friends and family can leave students feeling isolated. Modern life makes this even harder. The everyday pressures of social media combined with the high fi nancial cost of university, and the uncertainty of fi nding employment post-study, all add to the stress levels. Our schooling system leaves students largely unprepared for the challenges of independent study, so it is no wonder that students are suffering, particularly in their fi rst year of an undergraduate course.


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Through staff awareness, counselling services, and support facilities, universities are being encouraged by the government to make student wellbeing a strategic priority. This is welcomed, but one aspect that is rarely considered, particularly at briefi ng stage, is the impact that the built environment has on the human experience.


Vitruvius, the Roman thinker and architect, defi ned the elements of a well-designed building as ‘fi rmness, commodity and delight’, critically linking good design with happiness and wellbeing. As designers, we have a duty to consider not only the physical performance of our buildings but the physiological performance and the whole student experience.


The government’s ‘Foresight’ project considers how to improve mental wellbeing for everyone. Through the ‘Five Ways to Wellbeing’ report, it suggests that there are fi ve activities which can improve mental health outcomes. I believe that these can be applied to several aspects of the built environment.


1. Connect. Architects can encourage people to connect with one another by creating spaces to stop, linger, chat and work. By creating group work areas, drop in points and spaces suitable for social learning, we can encourage debate


The new University of Glasgow Learning and Teaching Hub encourages social interaction and mindfulness.


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