Twelfth International Conference on The Constructed Environment

Abstract

Under implicit and explicit social contracts, individuals are oft willing to concede certain personal freedoms if the maintenance of social order or other freedoms are protected. But what about our collective spatial contracts? How much should individuals, groups, and cities be willing to negotiate individualistic, personal spatial freedoms, in exchange for a more publicly robust, interconnected, and meaningful way of living? Prior to the imposed isolation of the pandemic, a troubling global trend was emerging: the 21st century is quickly becoming the loneliest century we have known. And although people are now migrating to cities at unprecedented rates, living in close proximity to one another does not appear to be a substitution for meaningful belonging. Available research, largely situated within the social sciences, indicates this weakened social participation impacts our physical and mental health and well-being. Despite entrenched beliefs that physical space affects well-being and behaviour, when it comes to loneliness, architects tend to rely on a combination of experience, intuition, and post-occupancy evaluation to gain anecdotal evidence about the qualities of collective places and spaces. Inspired by curator Hashim Sarkis’ 2021 Architecture Biennale theme How Will We Live Together?, this pedagogical research uses human simulation software (FLUID) to evaluate how architecturally driven changes to four common residential typologies promote heightened interaction and belonging. The result is a comparative working methodology whereby architects can evaluate design options from the perspective of social connectivity, and thereby provide enhanced design rationales to proactively combat the next pandemic: loneliness.