What makes a space ‘A Happy space’?
Subject
Architectural Design
,Climatology
,Academic Year
2'nd Year
,Complexity Level
Beginner
,Content tags
Happiness Index
,Space Cooling
,Sustainable Building Design
,Thermal comfort
,Activity Type
Survey
,Activity duration
1 week
,Objective
To understand how a living space affects the moods and happiness of building users.
Outcome
Students will be able to correlate happiness, well-being, sustainability with the way the space is designed.
Requirements
None
Prerequisites
None
Procedure
Step 1: Organise the class into small groups.
Step 2: Ask the students to share within their group ‘Why and what element, space makes them happy and safe in their own house?’ Students should share with examples.
Step 3: Ask the groups to come together and list down the elements, reasons, aspects, criteria that has come out in their group. For example: Size of apartment, amount of sunlight, the amount of wind flow, open space, thermal comfort, number of ACs, etc.
Step 4: Based on the list and findings, create a questionnaire, which is to be asked to building users with focus on well-being, sustainability, design of the living space and thermal comfort.
Step 5: Each group conducts the survey for 10 residents each, the dwelling typology should be as different as possible such as bungalow, high rise, low rise, villa, green building, etc.
Step 6: Compile the findings of the survey and derive inferences about the user preferences.
Step 5: Share the result of the surveys in the class and reflect on the correlation of happiness with sustainability, living space and their design.