Colorado Real Estate Journal - March 2, 2016
Buildings are as much a part of our cities and communities as the people who inhabit them. Aside from the great outdoors, there is nowhere we can go without interacting with the built environment; nearly all of our daily activities take place in a building that was designed by an architect. How we choose to design our buildings and cities can profoundly affect our lives – they impact our senses, our vitality, our behavior and, ultimately, represent our ideals and values as a society. As such, architecture professionals consider human nature an integral part of the design process. For architects, human behavior is one of the first components we look to understand and accommodate during the design process. If you challenge people to reorganize their innate patterns and behaviors to fit into a particular space, no matter how well that project is designed, it will eventually fail. The recent design trend of open office and communal space provides an excellent example of space before people. While being a theoretical solution to sparking collaboration and creativity among workers, the shared space model can disregard the occasional need for private, quiet space. This can result in frustration for workers who just need some time to concentrate or make an important phone call. It can also decrease employee productivity and overall satisfaction. However, people-first design will both support and adapt to the undeniable patterns of human behavior. For example, by providing a balance of private spaces, common areas and right-sized meeting rooms, the Gensler-designed Alliance Center in downtown Denver optimizes space utilization to accommodate for both individual concentration and group collaboration. By providing both a beautiful and naturally functioning space for people to work in, the building improves overall worker productivity and satisfaction. As suggested by Karen Harris, AIA, “Good design is not always obvious to most people in their everyday lives. It does, however, become extremely obvious when it makes life more difficult.” This also is apparent in childhood and old age. Harris, who concentrates her design work on identifying aging-in-place strategies, believes the connection between physical and mental well-being is strong, and can be enhanced through proactive and thoughtful design. “When one is able to navigate their physical environment with confidence, it translates into confidence in other aspects of their lives,” Harris continued. An increasing amount of scientific research is proving that physical challenges within limits are very positive for overall health. As noted by Bill Holicky, AIA, seniors who walk on cobblestones have fewer accidents than those who primarily walk on smooth surfaces. Therefore, providing seniors with an environment where uneven walking surfaces are available would be an appropriate design response to improve the quality of life for this particular user group. It is the keen ability of architects to weave these necessary, yet pragmatic, elements into their designs to create effective and desirable spaces. The need to balance the consideration of how people will use a space, and how to maximize the success of the experience, while simultaneously providing for the aesthetics and the joy of a well-conceived design is part of the art and craft of architecture. The best buildings are both relatable and stimulating – allowing people to interact with them at the human scale, while still inspiring and referencing something above and beyond our physical reality. One such example is a mixed-use building like Taxi 2 in Denver’s River North neighborhood. Designed in collaboration by David Baker, FAIA, Alan Eban Brown, AIA, Will Bruder, FAIA, and Harry Teague, AIA, obvious care was put into the first floor of an otherwise very sculptural building. Elements such as varied windows, siding changes, structural columns, inverted umbrella awnings and large concrete seat blocks increase the building’s complexity while ensuring its function at the human level. The impact of technology, the influx of residents to the state, and other societal and economic changes ensure there will be an evolution to the built environment and human experience in Colorado in the coming years. It will be interesting to see how Colorado’s built environment responds to these changes. Will our buildings have a more positive impact on our wellbeing? How will our design standards adapt to new ideas about efficiency, comfort and function? And how will our buildings change us in return? Perhaps this advice from Winston Churchill is all we need for now: “There is no doubt whatever about the influence of architecture and structure upon human character and action. We make our buildings and afterwards they make us. They regulate the course of our lives.”