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Architecture of Happiness

For our blogpost, we had to explore the idea of architecture of happiness. One of the places we explored on the UNCG campus was the meditation room in the EUC. As we were approaching the building which housed the meditation room, I did not get the sense that I was entering a Happy Place & Happy Space. In fact, I was surprised that the meditation room was located inside the busy Elliott University Center.

We were instructed not to speak inside the meditation room which peaked my curiosity even more. I had not seen this meditative place before . The small north entrance displayed a beautiful glass art piece on the wall--finally, I was able to experience the meditative place.

Happy Place

The interior space of the meditation place defied my preconceived ideas of the placement of the large circle to mark the center of the room. I did not expect to see a very large circle off the center. The walls were very sparcely decorated except for two pieces of wall art--one which appeared to have impressionistic brush strokes, colors, and energy. This wall painting was strategically aligned to be in the center of the large circle which was on the floor.

The place had a rectangular plan view, with frosted aqua colored glass walls partitioned the space into small individual pods and delineated the main entrance. Another very important elements of the place was large rectangular rock and sand installation placed against the wall. The voids and solids appeared to be very well planned to enhance the materiality of the place. The solid of the large wooden circle grounded the meditators and the void was representative of the de-cluttering of the mind. I did not appreciate the order, placement of shapes, and sizes of the matter until later. After I left the place, the intentions of the place became clear to me...to de-clutter the mind and ground its visitors if and when are they out of balance. In Alain de Botton's Architecture of Happiness he quotes Mies van der Rohe "Architecture can render vivid to us who we might ideally be." I believe that the mediation room in the EUC accomplishes this task very successfully--ideally we would be well grounded of who we are and have clear minds for a happier existence.

Happy Space

In order to find the architecture of space, we stepped outside the main entrance of the meditation place. As soon as we stepped out, we were surrounded by a space which was flanked by two adjacent structures to the left and right which created u-shaped space. Inside this space, there was a kidney shaped water fountain, trees, and small round tables. I realized that the outside space determined the placement of the solids and voids on the inside. The large wooden circle on the inside was centered with the outside entrance and it also reminded me that we can feel "off center" but can find our way back to it by surrounding ourselves with happy architectural places. Alain de Botton alludes to this concept in his Architecture of Happiness with the idea that architecture may possess moral messages but it simply has no power to enforce them (de Botton 20).

In conclusion, I have a new appreciation for architecture and the psychological connections it has to living beings. Structures are not guarantors of happiness however, they can imply and suggest intent to its users. In terms of architectural rules, I do believe that rules and norms are meant to be broken to achieve the objective of the humans and the role the architecture is to be the conduit for this pursuit.

Source: Alain de Botton, Architecture of Happiness.