(the) happy spaces project is concerned with understanding "how the physical environment affects people’s happiness." Essentially we are interested in how space affects human emotion and perception. The field of Environmental Psychology is, broadly, investigating human behavior and space. They are concerned with better understanding how the environment affects human behavior.
Three Definitions of Environmental Psychology
Stokols & Altman (1987)
I wanted to share a wonderful post about the emotional effects the built environment has on people's everyday lives. Urban design, planning, and architecture is the world around us (for most people), and as professionals we have a great responsibility in shaping what that world is. We can make it happy, we can make it sad. This post on The Happy Spaces Project Blog caught my eye with the picture of Pruitt Igoe, an enormous public housing development that was demolished in St. Louis, after it gained the reputation of making the people who live there miserable. Studying architecture in St. Louis and visiting this cleared site that lays barren has always served as a reminder of the responsibility we carry. Enjoy this post - I think we should all look a little harder into the field of environmental psychology.
