Our 5 senses are the barometer of our city health and wellbeing and our need for History, Culture and Identity

A talk by Angela Brady OBE PPRIBA at the Health & Heritage conference dinner on 22 March 2017 in Quay Place Ipswich UK The Health & Heritage conference is themed on how Heritage and a quality built environment enhance mental health and personal and community wellbeing, and how the two sectors can better work together

Quay Place opened as a unique venue where you can meet, discover and connect, both with yourself and with others. Quay Place brings together Wellbeing and Heritage to create a place that is inclusive and welcoming to all. A place to relax and recharge in both mind and body, there aren't too many places that offer this kind of refuge - of body and mind and with a community spirit!

The stated aim for the project is to “link the idea of well-being with our historic environment to create a long term future for a building suffering the ravages of age” I could add that its not just the buildings suffering the ravages of age, our long term future can be extended and healthier if we look after the essence of our historic environment and then it will look after us. This link to our history is vital in bringing our community together

To quote Quay Place “We all have an emotional need for community and feeling part of something bigger than ourselves. The heritage of Quay Place enables that need to be met as we discover how we are all part of the larger story of St Mary at the Quay, the docks and the rest of Ipswich. Our lives are intertwined with those of the people who came before us, even if we have only recently moved to the area or are just visiting”

This quote could be applicable to every town and city around the UK, if not the world we need to connect to our history, culture and our identity and value our built heritage and thereby value ourselves

History, Culture and Identity are the 3 most important factors affecting place and community and how we can live healthy lives in our cities is dependent on the way we continue to plan our urban environment, our neighbourhoods, our streets, provide adequate facilities, it's what gives us our feeling of security and shelter, that a city needs to give to all it’s people

The way we live our lives in cities is dependent on good planning and decent buildings with quality public open spaces in which to feel connected, to feel part of the community to feel part of the greater whole. Our community memories are held strongly in places we know well, buildings that have stood the test of time, buildings that have held memorial events where we have engaged with the community the buildings and each other

As architects planners and clients, we have a duty to plan healthy cities so people can thrive within healthy communities that value history, culture and identity and give us a sense of belonging an d protection

In our own professions mental health and wellbeing is something that the RIBA and Architects Benevolent Society are both paying particular attention to this year, with so much extra stress on students and in our workplaces mental health is being taken very seriously as last

Our immediate built environment in our cities directly affects our health and wellbeing - It physically affects us and the way we live in cities - primarily we absorb our immediate environment via our 5 senses, so let’s take a closer look at these factors;-

The first of our senses is SOUND - so we hear it all whether we want to or not!

The sound of the city is probably the first thing that we notice. In a vibrant relaxed city you will hear the sound of laughter and a quiet pace of movement among people, who have time to stop to talk to their neighbours and friends. Some cities have just the loud sound of street traffic, fast wakers, honking horns and angry drivers along with the fear of being run over. They have high speed trains and low flying loud planes all adding to personal everyday stress. I prefer the near silence of the walkers and the safe cyclists that bring a calmness to the Copenhagen streets - with their advanced cycle lanes which discourage car usage and thus encourage health & wellbeing resulting in fitter happy people! One of the happiest Nations in the world

Sound is known to affect our mental health, so today acoustics and controlling the sounds in our environment we don't want to hear is critical to reducing stress. Kids in noisy environments find it hard to concentrate and therefore do less well at school. Noisy cities are not attractive. Sounds from noisy neighbours can be stressful to both sides of the party wall

The sounds within a building are important and how we can control it or enhance it. From the whispering chamber of the spy years to the echoey chambers of grand halls of Westminster - the larger the space the louder the volume, which sometimes brings people together

Community singing in church halls can be spiritually uplifting and signing as a group can bring people together on a regular basis forming community bonds and improve the happiness factor and sense of fulfilment. I recently visited the historic ruins of Petra in Jordan, and once inside the echoey chamber of the King. I felt compelled to sing the “Kyrie Eleison” (if somewhat out of tune) which felt much better than just saying “echo echo echo” to test the acoustics, it was amazing to be in such an acoustically perfect, natural man made space and in such a historic carved cave building. A memorable occasion

Buildings that have poor acoustics can be irritating to say the least, where background noises interrupt concentration or sleep, as hearing airplanes at nighttime can interrupt sleep patterns adding to stress which can lead to metal illness. I sympathise with people living within the extending flight corridors of London!

Sound is also related to privacy another basic human need and so many people often find solace in the quiet area of a church or the remote area of a park. Sometimes its hard to get away from unwanted noise perhaps one advantage of ageing is that you can turn your hearing aid off!

Our second sensory impression is our visual SIGHT - Can our city be "Love at First sight"? 

Photos: Segovia Spain

We all absorb images of a city and it's buildings, spaces, places, and people and how we identify with them. We can see visibly how we politically or collectively look after them - or not. The physical appearance of the built environment tells us so much about the real health of a city and it’s people. Is this city special or recognisable? Has it got its own unique identity? Can we tell it’s history by the age of its buildings and street patterns? Is the city well loved and looked after well? Is it a happy city?

Next you observe at the city people. Are they friendly and welcoming, or distant and hostile? Does the city look after its people and give them shelter? Are there many homeless people on the streets? How is the city protected and how does it protect its peopled places?

Then on closer inspection, are there too many tall buildings with only lower income groups living there and little or no public space? Have the poorer people been rehoused to the outskirts of the city only to have long commutes back for minor jobs? Are only the richer folk able to afford to live in the city centre? Where are our young people going to be able to afford to live in ten years time?

Are there too many empty “buy to leave” homes for the high income group? Does the city allow the “privatisation it's public space” leading to further segregation of its people? Is there a good social mix of people and cultures so you feel safe and included? and can our disabled people get around the same buildings and spaces as our abled bodied folk? Sometimes the truth is out of our visual sight and the politics of city decisions are hard to read as a visitor

Does the city give you an immediate feeling of stress? or is it a place you want to stay and relax and spend some time looking around its cultural assets? Can you see the visible age of the city because it values it’s heritage and are it’s old buildings act like welcoming relatives? or do they tear them down because financial reward to build them high prevails with tax incentives?

At night time, is the city too bright and glaring to prevents easy sleeping, or too dark as to feel dangerous or just right to feel safe to walk home alone? These factors and how they are designed and decided can add to either mental stress or feeling good about a city, they need to be designed in the right way, both politically and with the community

A city full of unsightly rubbish and lack of care with dead end dark streets will feel hostile. It also probably reflects bad management and poor planning? Good urban design and good street planning and place making can make us feel safe in a city and therefore it will be well populated with people more inclined to walk or cycle and therefore we become fitter, healthier and happier

Thirdly is our sense of SMELL - Does the city have bad breath?

A city with clean air makes us feel good about the place - with the smell of trees or plants or large open urban spaces with a local bakery or coffee shop on the street. It smells good compared to heavy smog and traffic fumed air that we know is bad to breathe, so for the next trip - will it be Sienna or Beijing? 

We can clean polluted air with filters and plant more trees to reduce pollution, but in essence we need to look at the cause of air pollution and cut down on car use within the city and this will also help preserve the life of our old buildings

Our sense of smell can take us back to our childhood in seconds, like to the smell of that 'mouldy old shop' selling stale sweets, or the smell of 'freshly baked scones' your grandma used to make? Often just the memory of a bad smell can make you sick! But good smells can be uplifting and refreshing and memorable too

One thing I would advise against though and that’s “perfume for old buildings” -Fumigation by lavender just doesn't do it - better just to fix the damp or the drains and not disguises a problem!

Fourthly is our sense of TASTE and the importance of the availability of fresh food, or locally grown vegetable markets for the community, compared to a harsh hard city with lots of fast-junk-food outlets with not a local shop in site. Certain cities are famous for particular foods and local traditional dishes. Fresh food and health are directly linked. The availability of fresh food to all parts of a city is needed and the banning of junk food beside schools is essential. Planners have a key role to play so that homes are serviced within walkable distances of suppliers of essential foods and goods

The only tasty edible historic architecture probably belonged to the witch, that lured Hansel and Gretel to the gingerbread house, or perhaps more recently the cakes of famous buildings baked by architects, or at the Milan Expo in 2015 they showed great examples of growing food within our buildings, or the example of the edible “Eat-house” made from walls of fruit and vegetables

The edible streets movement with herbs on the side walk are becoming more popular in UK as well as internationally from Cuba to Berlin. The “CPUL” movement of Continuous Productive Urban Landscape - growing essential food in the heart of our cities also brings a sense of wellbeing to our communities. People love nature and plants and we like being in gardens or indoor spaces with a planted environment. Being next to a natural environment has been scientifically proven to aid recovery when ill and brings a sense of relaxation to us in this ‘age of anxiety’ we are in today. Green as a colour in our interior design also has phycological relaxing affects on our wellbeing. So - Next time you are feeling stressed - spend a couple of hours doing the gardening!

In one of our own inner city housing projects we added allotment raised flowerbeds to the communal area. It was amazing to see how a few keen gardeners got together and produced an abundance of tomatoes and herbs - and got to know their neighbours better at the same time. 

For the younger residents we added a 5 a side football pitch (above) on the fifth floor of their community centre, and the reason why we gave it to them was that we asked them what they wanted. In fact during the community consultation stage I went out into the street and encouraged the locals to come into the centre and look a the model of the new housing project coming to their area. I asked them what was needed - as there was no point in us guessing what they might like and getting it wrong?

Community consultation, no matter how large or small your project - is the key to a successful project. Consultation is so important for their ownership of their project. We are not building for ourselves but for other people to enjoy the spaces and places we help them create. It’s common sense really! 

TOUCH is our fifth sense - The rough with the smooth

People love to interact with the built environment as well as with each other and people are curious about materials. We like to stroke materials to feel their tactility or touch them to see what they feel like on our skin, hot or cold - like metal in summer or winter, or warm and smooth like carved timber, or rough and bumpy like hammered granite or hard sandstone carvings rubbed smooth by so many hands touching it - like the stone sculptures in the Moscow underground - rubbed to bring them luck, or kissing the Blarney Stone in Cork - to get the ‘gift of the gab’!  People are also interested in how buildings age over time

Our interaction with building materials and the craftsmen and women that created them into beautiful objects can be best appreciated in our older buildings we cherish. We have many happy memories of places visited in cities near and far, and many will be of historic building, rather than their contemporary steel and glass counterparts. Historic buildings have gravitas with their sense of age and history and they can create a picture of how our relatives lived in them and the more successful buildings thrive because they have been converted and kept alive for modern uses like at Quay Place with mental health and mindfulness at its heart

We worked on one of English Heritage's “Buildings at risk register” projects over 20 years ago called the Clapton Portico, the Portico itself was all that remained of the London Orphans Asylum built in 1827 which was converted in 1880 into the Salvation Army Congress Hall. The other buildings were demolished in 1976 and the Portico was retained as a townscape feature but memories were alive within the community

It was saved by a Heritage Lottery Grant and Hackney Council. We added a new contemporary extension with education rooms along with restoring the old Portico. What was left of the old building was saved and given vibrant new community and educational use and it sits as a marker to its old setting as an addition to Clapton Girls school. It's important that children appreciate historic buildings and can engage with them. Our buildings need to be adaptable to contemporary needs and uses and Planners need to appreciate this too

Our sixth sense is just that, an extrasensory perception (or ESP) - something that gives us a gut reaction to a place

This is something we all need to be aware of. We know why we like cities, people and our environment by the way if affects our 5 senses often subliminally along with our 6th sense with that extra reaction to a place. Some cities easily attract people to visit, live and work there and are open and welcoming - others are closed, gated and hostile.

To maintain or improve our own city the way we want it, we need to engage with people, buildings and place and sometimes for cities to retain their momentum, it's about seizing the moment, fighting to save an old building due to be knocked down within our community, standing up for what you collectively believe in. Today engaging within different communities can be very positive in making progress, look at the social media community on Twitter and Facebook, with campaigns that can change political or planning decisions with public petitions and campaigns. Feeling that what you are doing with the community is right for the greater good of the city, is what brings people together to save the parts of a city that are important to them, to retain their history culture and identity and what anchors them in their own place

If your community loves a dilapidated historic building that is special to them - then help them save it. There are some great examples of communities saving much loved buildings such as the Ancoats Dispensary Trust in Manchester, an anchor in their local history and they are bringing this historic dispensary back to new life for their community

In our own practice at Brady Mallalieu Architects we are very conscious of the way we plan large housing projects and although we are not the ones developing the brief for the projects we do try and persuade our clients about having an open and diverse mix of housing units, lots of community open shared spaces, community facilities and making it as sustainable as possible. We like to meet local people to find out what is special to them and find out what they need, so community consultation is essential

(Photos by Dennis Gilbert above and below: Phoenix Heights Isle of Dogs by BMA )

Architects are not always the ones making decisions which affect people lives, but we can give it a good try to influence the way people can use these buildings in a sociable way and encourage community interaction

Our health barometer for a city is evident in the physical built environment and its affect on its people. You can tell the pride or prejudice of a City, by what it treasures and what it ignores, by their policies, politics and community engagement and how it looks after its buildings, places and citizens. Our health is reflected in the state of our metal and physical wellbeing, transmitted and affected by our senses and we view our built environment in the same way

I will finish with two quotes from Dr Iain Butterworth - (a specialist in integrating policy, research and practice to build liveable, sustainable communities) He says “Community psychology defines communities, rather than individual people, as the primary unit for understanding and tackling social issues” and in his paper “The Relationship Between the Built Environment and Wellbeing”: a Literature Review he also says that

“Cities should be places of laughter, loving, working, learning, selling, buying, dying, birth, debating, arguing, politicking; in short a place to fulfil our emotional, social and physical needs. Yet cities are often places where intimacy is difficult.... Cities that encourage people to move out of the isolation of their homes to discover a wide range of rewarding relationships, may be the best form of mental health promotion we can invent”.

We all need to encourage all of our citizens to engage with heritage and mental health and wellbeing and I think at Quay Place they do that vey well

References:

https://www.quayplace.co.uk  

https://www.mind.org.uk

https://www.visitchurches.org.uk 

https://www.ancoatsdispensarytrust.co.uk

https://www.bradymallalieu.com/portico.html

https://www.bradymallalieu.com/portico.htmlhttps://www.absnet.org.uk

https://www.architecture.com

Iain Butterworth https://www.researchgate.net/publication/253984800_The_Relationship_Between_the_Built_Environment_and_Wellbeing_a_Literature_Review

CPUL https://areeweb.polito.it/erasmus-ipcitygreening/dwd/seminar_IP2014/viljoen.pdf