Over time, architects, designers, and engineers have demonstrated how the structural significance and quality of architectural design impacts the built environment and the quality of life of people residing within it. To drive that point home, the AIA has released an infographic showing architecture’s key role in the enhancement of individuals’ physical and mental well-being.
The interactive charts explore how design plays significantly more than an aesthetic function. It is not solely about linear or convex shapes, about geometric structures or innovative materials. Rather, the importance of architecture lies in the choices that architects make when designing buildings in order to positively affect the quality of life of its users.
The infographic entitled “Designing Community, Shaping Health” was designed by Link Studio and depicts how diligent architectural decision-making can impact human life. The graphics show a variety of objects that the user is able to scroll over or click on in order to see their function and impacts. For instance, clicking on a staircase will explain in great detail how buildings that are not equipped with elevators ultimately benefit individuals through exercise. In fact, stair-climbers have a 20 percent lower risk of stroke or death than elevator-users.
The AIA makes a point that architects are not just instrumental in the modeling of a building, but rather, how they contribute to the shaping of our happiness and unhappiness as well. AIA’s message is that design doesn’t just impact our lives. It can save them.
