sold building happy and healthy.” Very soon this could be the commercial argument for market homes, offices, shopping centres and even football stadiums. A new trend begins to be seen in the Spanish real estate sector. Is the neuroarquitectura, that explains how space affects the mind. Because if there is something certain is that the architecture always causes feelings, be it positive or negative.
This discipline (created by two neuroscientists, Fred H. Gage and Peter Eriksson, 1998) proposes that the way in which buildings are constructed can help the mental well-being and happiness of the people. And can stimulate creativity, to maintain attention and concentration, increase productivity, and promote relaxation. For example, the high ceilings, according to the psychologist Joan Meyers-Levy, conducive to creativity, while low promote concentration.
In the design of offices these parameters are taken into account. There are numerous studies that show that the natural lighting and views to improve the productivity, performance, and memory. And even employees who are more light-receiving sleep up to 46 minutes more per night, according to a study of several neuroscientists in 2014.
In the housing market, Spain begins to flirt with the first projects that sell homes happy and healthy, and a way to differentiate yourself from the competition and also an argument for selling at higher prices. In Monforte del Cid (Alicante), around the golf Font del Llop, projecting a complex of 1,400 dwellings. It will be different to the other developments in the area, where there are still about 13,000 unsold homes around golf courses. “Blue Zones Living is the first construction project in Spain focused exclusively on the health, quality of life and well-being of the people,” says Manuel Strong, scientific, group president, Kiatt and responsible for Spain of the company of technological transfer of the University of Oxford, which converts it into marketable products, the scientific discoveries. Behind the design of this urbanization, there is a multidisciplinary team of hundreds of collaborators among physicians, scientists, sociologists, and neurologists in London, Singapore or Hong Kong. “Our client, a group of real estate managers, asked us to do something different to the typical house with garden. I saw the opportunity to propose a project that took into account the happiness of the people,” says Strong.
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Your starting point is the blue zones (blue zones), the five places in the world where people live longer and are happier. In Okinawa (Japan), Icaria (Greece), Sardinia (Italy), Loma Linda (California) or the peninsula of Nicoya (Costa Rica) is common for all the inhabitants to meet 100 years. The project of Alicante seeks to replicate the conditions that occur in those places where the life expectancy is 20 years higher than the average. Intend to sell sensations, in addition to houses, something that will increase in price by between 4% and 5%. And to do this to retrieve the traditional village mediterranean, where they encourage social relationships. So says a study from the University of Harvard, which suggests that people live longer, and age better according to the strength of those contacts. Therefore, there will be many areas of socialization, urban gardens, farm to school for children, a vineyard… “we Create a common space for neighbors, close to each other. The idea is Klasbahis to lead to casual encounters, not forced”.
in Addition to the quality of the air or of the water and the light, the architecture will promote physical activity with design stairs attractive to encourage people to use them. They hide the elevators behind them. “We make the hallways interesting by adding works of art, items of leisure and vegetation,” says Strong. Avoiding large open spaces, grey and empty buildings, because they generate a sense of loneliness and isolation. And opt for rounded contours and curved corners because they help to relax the mind. Once it gets going (it is very early), the next step will be to monitor the brain activity of people interacting with the space.
Another form of architecture that puts health at the heart of the project is Haus. It is a way of constructing, created by the management company Marcove and the study of architecture Bailo Rull, that bet by applying criteria healthy spaces with the goal of improving the lives of people and the environment. After several years of research have actually made your first project, Espai Natura, a promotion of 16 homes of some 140 square metres located in Sant Cugat del Vallès (Barcelona). Say create spaces that breathe. It is the first built under the parameters of Haus: optimization of the levels of thermal, bioelectric and lighting; improve the quality of water and air; minimizing the impact of the electric and magnetic fields, as well as the toxicity of the paints.
football Stadiums
The architectural firm Fenwick Iribarren, designing the fifth tower of the new Castilian and three football stadiums for the next World cup of Qatar (one of them detachable), also works in the line of creating a good feeling with their designs. Has coined the concept of “Blue Architecture”, which puts the focus on the well-being of the people who live or work in their buildings. Designed to stimulate all the senses. “We realized that everyone in the world thought on the planet, but no one was interested in the welfare of the people who inhabit the buildings,” said Mark Fenwick, a partner director. Their buildings think, for example, in the difference of genres, the feelings upon entering the building, or in the colors and materials, that influence the mood and the happiness. Now develops an architecture designed especially for the needs of women.
Another boost to the real estate healthy is the certificate Well, of the International Well Building Institute, which evaluates its impact on the health and well-being of the people, who spend 90% of their time indoors. There are ten concepts that are measurable, both for housing as for hotels and offices: air, water, food, lighting, movement, thermal comfort, sound, materials, mind and community. Castellana 81, Madrid, is the first office building to obtain it in Spain. USA and China are the countries with the highest implementation of this certification, which has already examined 1,000 projects from 2014. In Spain there are more than 30 buildings in the process of certification and is the Instituto Tecnológico de Galicia (ITG) is the first official entity to conduct training in Spanish for Spain and Latin america.
