During Mental Health Awareness Week we are going to share some insights into how we design for mental wellbeing.
One of our biggest considerations when designing projects is to increase what we call psychological comfort — the ability to build in elements of the environment that help us manage our mental wellbeing.
We are all different and need different things to support our mental heath and looking at anxiety through a design lens is particularly important.
This square is a student residential scheme that we worked on some time ago. The idea is to provide many different ways to occupy the space without feeling "out of place" something many of us feel, and particularly when we are away from an environment near home. It was crucial to us to increase the level of planting in the dark narrow space, so by using a green wall, the connection with nature is fully visible. The benches are also designed so that you can perch on them, lie on them, sit alone or in groups. There are also plenty of places that are more sheltered. However you use this space, you don't look out of place.
Photograph ©ChrisGasgoigne
