Great question. Why don’t you try looking at religious institutions or hospitals as each strives to psychologically “shelter” in some similar and quite unique ways. For example, sound and light might be treated differently in each case to promote either peaceful contemplative spaces for meditation and prayer or body/mind health and healing from illness. In either case, both of these examples could be considered forms of psychological shelter. Simply seek some architectural examples of each (looking at where other projects were both successful and not so successful) to learn and extrapolate why such architectural features lend themselves toward “psychological shelters”. Hope that helps! Let me know how it goes.

Just wondering if you know of any books or websites that would be able to offer some valuable information on this topic.

Many thanks
Jason

The key is to know your future occupant extremely well. Perhaps you can not only relax your visitors (elimate stress) while they experience your spa, but you can also teach them how to relax once they’re away from the spa. (biofeedback, for example). Also, if your spa is all-inclusive, you can provide a variety of ways to treat your visitor’s senses. Environments to enjoy food, massages, facials and so on.

There is a lot you can do to build a feast for the senses when considering a spa design. Just, use your imagination and know your occupant well.

I like the discussion very much, but could you please explain more about a spa center. How could I convey a healing and total sensory experience to visitors?
thx

Try doing some research on the Salk Institute by Luis Kahn. You’ll see how Jonas Salk teamed up with Luis Kahn to create a place for scientists to work — whereby the architecture impacts and fosters creative thinking and behavior (and much more). In fact, Jonas Salk profoundly believed that architecture (specifically a monastery he visited) helped him foster a mindset to come up with the idea that ultimately helped him find the cure for Polio.

Needless to say, architecture can have a profound effect upon those that experience it.

Well, I’d say that all architecture has a psychological effect upon those occupants that experience them. The question then becomes, what kind of effect do they have? If you are designing a building project I might start by asking yourself more about the qualities and consequential effects your architecture needs to convey to its occupants according to institution type (i.e. hospital, school, museum, office building, etc).

Additionally, you could look at a building you find “successful” (or “unsuccessful”) and ask yourself why it elicits a certain human response. For example, is it the way the architect used color or spatial placement of features from one another? The acoustical design? Or even the lighting?

For example, a hospital is a place where architectural psychology can be used effectively. If you were designing this building type you could ask questions like: What effects should this hospital have upon its patients? How can these effects influence (hurt or help) their healing and recovery? etc. For example, it has been found that patients in rooms with views of a tree out of their window actually recover faster than patients in rooms with no views of nature.