In celebration of International Happiness Day on March 20th, CRTKL launched Happiness Week: a collection of tips, tricks, and moments of Zen to emphasize the importance of imbuing happiness into design in spaces of all kinds. From workplaces to retail to residential homes and everything in between, we spoke to planners, architects, and designers from around the firm to ask: what makes a space happy?
Sabina Bottarelli
Workplace, Strategic Space Planner, Italy
The idea of a happy home means different things to different people and cultures. There are simple design tips that do help improve the quality of space, making the people living in it feel better, but I do believe that a happy home, in the end, is a place where you feel warm and cozy while reflecting on yourself, your authenticity, and your story. It must have the colors you like, the furniture style and art that reflects your personality, items that you bring from your travels, pictures of friends and family, presents you have received from special ones– your home is an extension of yourself. This gives meaning and a sense of belonging—therefore, bringing happiness.
Fan Guo
Shopping and Entertainment Districts, Principal, China
I think a happy place is one that can stimulate positive feelings in a person, be flexible, provide both privacy and sense of collaboration, and provide a sense of health and wellness.
Eurico Francisco
Healthcare, Principal, Dallas, TX
A hospital – or a clinic, or a doctor’s office, or a laboratory – is not a place that we’ll typically choose to go to when everything is fine, when we’re feeling good. In most cases, there’s generally a level of apprehension or anxiety that accompanies a visit to a healthcare environment.
So what makes a healthcare space happy? We could say that a sense of comfort and reassurance is what happy means in healthcare. A sense that the place supports the work of the healthcare providers with their amazing training and skills– a sense that the latest technology is at their disposal. So, a space that is at once light, calming, reassuring and that somehow communicates a sense of optimism in the future, that everything will be ok – that’s my happy healthcare space.
Maggie Willis
Workplace, Associate, Washington, DC
My happiest days are filled will sunshine, movement, and interacting with others, so a happy space, to me, embodies that energy. But I also find happiness in the solitude I find in my cozy, quiet apartment filled with natural light, plants, and a warm cup of tea. It is the balance between the movement and solitude that truly brings me joy in a space with an abundance of sunshine and plants on the side.
James Lai
Shopping and Entertainment Districts, Associate Principal, England
A happy space is where one feels at ease and safe– a place where you can relax and enjoy. To me, a happy place is always filled with warmth, light and a touch of delight– something that makes you truly smile from the inside.
Matthew Tribe
Residential, Principal, Dubai
Fundamentally, happiness remains at the core of all societies to provide a sense of belonging, community and wellbeing. By focusing our attention on the challenges people face every day, coupled with the application of emerging urban technologies and life-centered design, we can deliver solutions that enhance happiness and wellbeing for all. Spaces can provide stress relief, methods of interaction, levels of comfort, natural light, air quality and other elements that influence people’s emotions and create environments where individuals are more conducive to productivity
Ramsay Ritchie
Hospitality, Associate Principal, England
What makes a space happy is when everything has been resolved and is in the right place– form follows instinct. For hospitality projects, happiness is a synergy of interiors, product design and bringing the outside inside to make our lives richer.
Billy Hanley
GTS, Senior Associate, Washington, DC
For me, the happiest places are those I feel the most comfortable in. A space where I don’t have to worry how or if something is going to work; it’s a space that fills me with confidence. Using any space should be intuitive—not frustrating. This way, every engagement in that space starts smoothly and gives the user confidence, and they are happy to be there.
Matthew George
Workplace, Strategic Space Planner, Finland
For me, a happy home space starts from a safe and secure base– a ‘castle’ if you will. Once that’s there, the happiness can grow and flourish– influenced by light, nature, good food, family spirit, love, laughter, and memories.
Claudia Beruldsen
Workplace, Senior Associate, Germany
A happy workspace enables its workforce to be in charge and take control over what one is doing. To achieve this, we rely on real facts and figures that guide us towards a workspace that sets the scene for its users to feel respected and valued—we call it the Human Centric approach.
Hakan Topalhan
Healthcare, Associate Principal, Washington, DC
For me, happy occupants ignite and sustain the feeling of happiness. The more physically comfortable, free, and connected the occupants are, the more positive energy will radiate. I look for balanced, clean and organized aesthetics for physical comfort; simple but rich spaces for individual freedom for different needs and preferences; and connectivity to the natural environment to harmonize with the universe. Then, the happiness cycle restarts.
Erik Mueller-Ali
Retail, Principal, England
Colour! It creates happiness – think of the excitement from spring blossoms.
Lydia Firminger
Residential, Associate Prinicipal, England
Happiness is the spirit of a place – the way the sunshine dances off the walls, the layers of history against sharp new lines. The forever changing glints of light against soft shadows.