Architecture is one of the most important areas of human activity, which includes the design and construction of all kinds of structures and is the oldest activity in organizing space.
Occupying one of the most important positions in the development of society, architecture has always been inextricably linked with painting, sculpture, and decorative arts, and developed in accordance with the style of a particular era.
In the modern world, the following main areas of architecture are distinguished:
· Design of buildings and structures
· Urban planning activities
· Landscape architecture
· Interior design
The architecture of public buildings and structures is designed to satisfy the diverse aspects of human life, reflecting in an artistic and figurative form construction projects social processes of society development. While meeting certain material and spiritual needs, public* buildings must at the same time correspond to the worldview and ideology of society. .
At all times, the most expressive and impressive works of architecture are public buildings and structures that embody the highest aspirations of the human spirit and the skill of architects and builders construction projects.
Significant in their architectural and artistic image, public buildings, especially their complexes, regardless of their size, organize urban spaces, becoming an architectural dominant.
Social, scientific and technological progress, as well as the development of urban planning in our country, increase the importance of the public service sector and are associated with an increase in the scale of construction of various institutions and service enterprises to improve the working, living and leisure conditions of the population.
Among other types of construction, public buildings occupy one of the leading places in terms of volume. Of the total urban planning costs for a residential area, capital investments in the construction of public buildings average 28-30%. The proportion of construction of public buildings is even higher in resort cities, tourist, scientific centers, in cities of all-Union and republican significance, where, as a rule, they are built. theaters, libraries, museums, exhibition halls and pavilions, sports facilities, administrative buildings, large shopping centers, hotels, air terminals, etc.
It is known that cities and urban settlements play a vital role in the formation of settlement systems in the country, being the main centers of industrial production, science, education, culture, transport, etc. This form of settlement acquires particular significance in the conditions of Siberia with its sparsely populated territories, the specificity of natural and climatic conditions and the traditionally established attitude on the part of the state towards the natural and human resources of this huge region.
on the one hand, the city is a product of the development of society, created by the labor of people to satisfy their vital needs (self-preservation, survival, reproduction, development, satisfaction of material and spiritual needs, etc.) On the other hand, it must be stated that the city, arising, developing and dying out, it goes through all the stages characteristic of a living organism, and, like all living things, it has, depending on the species, different periods of existence (from several years or tens of years to thousands of years).
Did you know that architecture, along with other factors, influences our life expectancy? But ancient highly developed civilizations knew this very well, and therefore erected buildings and structures in which length, height and width were correlated in accordance with the law of the “golden ratio”. Such architecture of buildings brings the rhythms of the human body into line with the natural rhythms of nature, which helps strengthen immunity and increase life expectancy.
That is why people who lived in ancient times, long before the Great Flood, which destroyed not only most of humanity, but also contributed to the loss of much hidden knowledge, lived much longer than us. Here is what V. Shemshuk writes about this in his book “Meeting with Koshchei the Immortal”:
“Antediluvian people lived on average for 1000 years or more not only because they ate special food, as the ancient Greek philosopher Thales believed. The food of our ancestors was indeed very different from modern ones, since it did not contain herbicides, pesticides, mineral fertilizers and was not genetically modified But the main secret of the long life of antediluvian people is that ancient people were included in the biocenosis, that is, they lived in harmony with the surrounding World.
Having entered into resonance with the vibration frequency of the biocenosis, an inexhaustible source of energy, a person does not get sick or become decrepit. According to the Bible, Methuselah lived 969 years, Noah - 950 years, of which 350 years were after the flood. One of his sons, Shem, lived only 600 years, and Arphasat, the son of Shem, lived 465 years. Later people lived even shorter lives. Moses lived only 120 years, Joseph - 110 years, and modern man - just over half a century. There is a gradual disappearance of longevity, since protected forests (forests where people lived according to the Vedas) were mercilessly destroyed.
The Egyptian pyramids, which are based on the “section of life” found in the geometric forms of all living things, are not destroyed because they are resonantly fueled by the vibration frequencies of living organisms, equal in wavelength to their internal frequency. They still stand, although they were built much earlier than the pyramids based on the ratio of the Egyptian triangle, which have now almost completely collapsed.
Paradoxically, when there is a high level of correlation in the structure and form of large and small, then a kind of energy-information exchange occurs, that is, a flow of energy - and the form is not destroyed. The phenomenon of vibrational frequencies flowing was discovered at the beginning of the last century. We affirm that a person's future is in the things that surround him, in the people he meets, in the thoughts, deeds and actions that he carries and performs.
Even the architectural form of a building affects the shape of the protein of the human body - and therefore, if the vibration frequencies of the building correspond to the vibration frequencies of a person, or are multiples of his wavelength, or those future vibration frequencies to which evolution should lead, then the shape of the building helps a person to open up, that is reveal new abilities inherent in him and extend his longevity. If the vibration frequency of a building is not a multiple of the vibration frequency of a person, then it slowly kills him. Not only improperly constructed buildings destroy people’s bodies with their wavelengths that are not harmonious with humans, but also the vibration frequencies of people in the building destroy such buildings. This is one of the reasons why renovations are constantly required in apartments.
When constructive sections are used in the construction of buildings, three goals are achieved: buildings are less likely to collapse, they are beautiful and functional. Not only buildings, but also clothing, furniture and their compositions that resonate with the human body can lead to raising the vibration of the cells of our body, to advancing a person towards enlightenment and the revelation of his abilities. The architecture of the house should not only be correlated with various types of creative sections, but also be multifunctional, i.e. protect from bad weather, provide clean air, food and energy.
Frequencies, vibrations and rhythms subordinate to the “section of life” or, as it is also incorrectly called the “golden ratio”, being in resonance, have a remarkable synergetic property: self-sustaining. Our ancestors knew this well, who, along with the “section of life”, used other ratios, i.e. volumetric resonators: a cross-section of perfection, creation, creativity, transformation, harmony. enlightenment, knowledge, etc."
Even the brilliant Leonardo da Vinci discovered that the human body is built in accordance with the law of the “golden section”, and, therefore, to harmonize it with natural rhythms, the architecture of buildings built on the same principles is necessary. The fact that such buildings contribute to improving health and increasing life expectancy was proven by the Leningrad architect I.P. Shmelev, who used knowledge of the law of the “golden ratio” in the design parameters of his house.
But how many modern buildings were built in accordance with the laws of world harmony? This is why humanity, driven into the concrete jungle of megalopolises and large cities, is sick both physically and spiritually. After all, constant exposure to inharmonious architecture leads to a mismatch between human rhythms and the natural rhythms of Nature and, as a result, to loss of health and low life expectancy. But the natural landscape, as well as buildings built in accordance with the law of the “golden section”, lead to the opposite result.
Every profession comes with its own set of challenges. This may be low wages or lack of prospects, the presence of labor-intensive tasks or “difficult” clients. Let us give as an example 10 arguments that will help you take a sober look at your chosen profession.
1. Your social life is unlikely to be varied.
Friends of architects are also architects. There are two explanations for this. Firstly, these are the only people you come across every day because of point 3. Secondly, common interests force you to find people like you (after all, even at 5 in the morning an architect does not stop being an architect). I know at least 10 couples , in which both spouses are architects. But I don’t know a single lawyer whose wife is a lawyer, or a doctor who is married to a nurse - which cannot be said about architects. But really, why does this happen?
2. Working conditions are not as good as we would like
I have not personally researched this issue, but formed my opinion based on feedback from my colleagues working in other architectural firms. Most architectural firms do not provide their employees with the conditions that are taken for granted in other professional industries. I'm talking about retirement savings accounts, vision and dental insurance, the ability to take long vacations and have a flexible spending account. I am one of the few who are lucky in this regard.
3. You will have to work a lot, but few will appreciate it
The time you spend on a project is proportional to the quality of the final product. It is very difficult to distinguish between the desire to do something worthwhile and how much time you have to spend on its implementation. As a result, architects end up sitting late into the night, devising countless designs to solve a problem. But you might ask, you can finish the task tomorrow or next week. No. Typically, architects are driven by deadlines. At the same time, your company is unlikely to pay you for a 16-hour work day - after all, they also have to pay for the rent of the place you occupy, for the computer you use, for the electricity you burn all night long, etc. If you are given 200 hours to create a project, and you work 8 hours a day - it will be 25 days. If you work 16 hours a day, then these are still weeks beyond the existing period, which are no longer paid.
4. Your ideas don't matter.
Your customers hire you to get a product they want, not you. The result is that you are not doing exactly what you would like to do. Most projects are done for the sake of profit, and no matter whether it is a good project or not, the main rule of success in the modern world is to do more by paying less. There will be times when you will be asked to do something that you yourself consider terrible and completely unacceptable.
5. If your ideas are that important to you, you'll probably get fired.
Architects are stubborn by nature and like to insist on their own. Assuming that the client can be persuaded or offered an alternative, they are often seriously mistaken. I was once removed from a project for trying to remove a client from a project. I didn't want my name to be associated with their project in any way.
6. Not all architects have interesting jobs.
95% of your time at university was dedicated to design, not working with clients, figuring out details, developing a project plan and editing. Very few people are directly involved in the creation of the project. You would probably never have thought that your work would be so boring and dreary. It's as if you needed to assemble a car in parts just to drive it on the street once. A lot of time is spent on designing a building; this has little connection with creativity.
7. Your own home will make you depressed.
You won't be able to afford your dream home. I managed to live in 5 houses during 15 years of working as an architect and all this time I was thinking about how to improve the space around me, but in order to bring all my plans to life I needed to win the lottery. However, everything is in your hands. You just need to be patient.
8. You will live with terrible decisions.
The nature of architectural work often involves experimentation. Sometimes you will have to make terrible decisions, you will know that it will ruin people's lives, but you will have to accept it and move on with your life. The good news is that the building you built can be demolished, and then your mistakes will be forgotten. Yes, by the way, your project may also be thrown out over time. Be prepared.
9. Architecture requires a lot of work and dedication.
Architects study for a long, long time, pass difficult tests, and work for many years to gain experience. There are many professions in the world in which you can advance much faster with the same effort. If you want to become a lawyer, you will need 4 years of university study, then another 3 to consolidate your knowledge - 7 years and you are in the ranks! It took me 6 years and 207 hours to get my bachelor's degree. Then I worked for 6 years and didn't get a significant salary increase. In short, you must know exactly where you are going.
10. You may not be a designer.
In my class, every second person was sure that he would be a super designer. Almost no one ever became one. You'll have to do a whole bunch of other things.
BUILDINGS ARE CREATED FOR LIVING, WORK, MEETINGS, STUDY, RECREATION, SLEEPING,... IN THEIR TURN, PUBLIC BUILDINGS ARE CALLED TO UNITE PEOPLE. THE MORE THESE PUBLIC SPACES ARE IN DEMAND, THE MORE NEUTRAL AND EFFECTIVE THE ARCHITECTURE SHOULD BE. YOU JUST COMPARE THE LOBBIES OF A HOTEL AND A SHOPPING CENTER TO UNDERSTAND HOW DIFFERENT THE NEEDS AND PURPOSE OF THESE BUILDINGS ARE.
The rise of consumer society in the 1960s forced architects, contractors and developers to rethink their role as creators of public spaces. So, it turns out that the task is to create buildings of a high level, and at the same time, complying with the unwritten laws of numbers and money? Since then, they have tried to find a balance between these two impulses, because when people's needs change, so does architecture. In public places, people tend to personalize their territory, for example by placing a photo on their desktop, or placing their coat on the next seat on the train. In large public buildings such as transport hubs, people unsure of their route almost always look to the right and to the best-lit areas. In public restrooms, toilet stalls are often located at right angles to the door because people don't like to look directly at toilets. Extroverts need less office space than introverts and tend to have livelier decorations in their workspaces. Why do we always buy more than we planned when we go to IKEA? Having circled along the path marked by arrows for half an hour, we want to feel that we have not wasted our time in vain. All this information about human behavior comes from scientific research in the field of social psychology.
Giving meaning to the moment
For architects, contractors and investors, this kind of knowledge is of great importance. Buildings such as shopping malls and libraries have become places that also promote rest, relaxation and meeting other people. In this sense, they follow the trend of train stations, airports and museums. Here, public spaces take into account the need for places to sit and talk, walk and shop, and just hang out. At the same time, the hall of an apartment building, the lobby of an office building, the reception room of a hospital or the foyer of a theater - the more general the purpose of the building, the more general the language of its form.
Vennsela Library
©Helen & Hard AS - photo: Hufton + Crow
What impact does this have on events and trends in architecture? The power of big numbers and big money leads to standardization. Standardization made social housing and large-scale production possible after the war, but it also meant that the work of architects became much more politicized and economical. Are architects ready for such a close connection with the rationalization of the construction process? Or will it distract them from the architect's ultimate task: to create an autonomous, cultural and ideological language of form? This was the subject of debate in the 1970s, led by Manfredo Tafuri, who examined the relationship between architecture and capitalism in his book Architecture and Utopia (1973). What exactly he meant became clear only about twenty years later, when the economy and, as a consequence, architecture were on the rise. After all, the downside of architecture for the masses is the presence of chains such as McDonald's and IKEA, which are the same all over the world. And this leads not only to the interchangeability of buildings, but also to the interchangeability of cities. French anthropologist Marc Auger examined this phenomenon in 1992 in his essay Non-Lieux, introduction à une anthropologie de la surmodernité.
Conference decks and passarelles at the Barco headquarters, as a window onto the activities in the central atrium
©Jaspers-Eyers Architects - photo: Philippe Van Genechten
Perth Arena: color schemes and wooden walkways
©ARM+CCN, a joint venture of ARM Architecture and CCN Architects - photo
: Stephen Nicholls
People's living conditions are becoming more and more impersonal. Auger calls all these transport hubs, shopping centers and apartment buildings “NOT places.” These are buildings for the masses, buildings that have no impact on you as an individual: you are born and die in a hospital (not in your own bed), you spend your holidays at an all-inclusive resort (not in a leaky tent) and you shop at the supermarket (not your local baker). As a result, people spend most of their lives in impersonal buildings and spaces. So it became clear that it was extremely important for the designers of these faceless rooms to make them more individual and meaningful. Research such as the one described above assists architects in this process. This is how we know that people living in apartment buildings are less likely to hide in their own apartments if the path to them is more lively and attractive. That's why architects are now creating floor plans with spaces for both personal meeting and privacy. Naturally, this approach will not work at an airport, where maximum field of view and light are necessary to ensure awareness and smooth circulation of people. In this situation, designers take into account closed areas by creating demarcations in rooms, such as partitions or partitions. An interesting example of this is the Perth Arena concert hall and sports stadium in Australia (see page 14), where "humanity in scale" is evident in the division of façades into smaller sections, color schemes and woodwork. However, buildings like this are first and foremost efficient machines, designed to move people efficiently from one place to another, although their public spaces have been designed with great care.
Uniqueness
But where the level of new construction is declining, standardization and large scale are less of an issue. In addition, people tend to value craftsmanship and uniqueness more. This is the reason why marketplaces are so popular in Europe at the moment, such as the covered market in Ghent by Robbrecht & Daem or in Rotterdam by MVRDV. Another good example is the Sir Duncan Rice Library in Aberdeen by schmidt hammer lassen architects. Here the atrium was created not only to surprise, but also to create a window into the building through the clever use of the so-called “vortex” - openings in the floors that are slightly offset on different floors in relation to each other. This gives volume to the space, because the floors are viewed both from top to bottom and in the opposite direction, creating the impression of observing a doll’s house or a beehive. You can see books, students, groups of people, life,... everything at once! Architects, clients and the visitor tap into this need for community and craftsmanship. The creation of a special place, not just its effectiveness, has become an important theme in modern architecture. This is determined by the fact that people want to get a sense of community, experience, uniqueness from public places, and associate their memories with it. It is no longer a matter of people needing to be efficiently accommodated in a large space, but rather that they need to have the feeling that they are part of a larger whole.
Architecture (Latin architectura, from Greek architéкtón - builder), architecture, a system of buildings and structures that form the spatial environment for people’s life and activities, as well as the art itself of creating these buildings and structures in accordance with the laws of beauty.
Architecture is a necessary part of the means of production and the material means of existence of human society. Her artistic images play a significant role in the spiritual life of society. The functional, constructive and aesthetic qualities of architecture (usefulness, strength, beauty) are interrelated. Works of architecture are buildings with organized internal space, ensembles of buildings, as well as structures used to decorate open spaces (monuments, terraces, embankments, etc.).
Our website website about architectural styles and about the architecture of different times and different countries. In July 2007, the project was replenished with information about sculpture, architectural landmarks of the world, and antiques. Particular attention is paid to the architecture of Ancient Rus' and modern Russia.
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Architecture as a part of life
Architects are accustomed to thinking that architecture is of great importance. Not everyone thinks the same way. For many, only the building itself has value, since only the life that takes place inside the building is important.
You can often hear that it is much more important to have a good teacher (craftsman, parents, managers) in an ugly barn, barracks, large-panel house than a bad one in the most beautiful room. But few among us are equally blameless or hopeless.
Whether you like it or not, this is not architecture. This is a photo of the building. What is this, a purely semantic distinction? Not at all. The second is a static picture, chosen by someone, a frozen moment of life, light, season, weather, relationship...
Architecture IS, influences or serves as an element of our entire objective environment. In some way reflected by photography, it penetrates deeper than the purely objective factor, involving all our senses. A photograph may focus our attention for a moment, but we may barely notice our surroundings. You can turn away from the photograph at any time. Architecture is the spatial “frame” of our entire life, and therefore, living in architecture, we do not look at it.
Children, even those too young to show any artistic interest in their environment, behave very differently in different environments. And quite mature people feel, think, and act differently in different environments.
Modern architecture
Many people complain about modern architecture. They may be dissatisfied with the way old buildings are used (dampness, for example), but in the case of new ones they are dissatisfied with their environmental qualities (most often facelessness). Unlike an architect, almost no one thinks about architecture, but many people feel it. I feel sorry first of all for those in whom this feeling is dead, because their artistic instinct is weakened, distorted or even destroyed - not without the participation of architecture itself.
These imagination traps are formed by building manufacturers tuned to the wave of speculative gain and in turn continue to shape just such a market, along with other desire manipulators such as kitchen equipment manufacturers. On the other hand, architectural fashion is guided by what is individually new. This trend is further reinforced by architectural magazines, which show buildings as artistic objects (usually unoccupied). These buildings are not perceived that way by the people who use them.
Magazines have a greater impact on architecture students than their teachers, good or bad. It seems that it is magazines that have the strongest effect on the consciousness of at least some practicing architects. However, the consciousness that is thus reinforced - the attitude towards a building with a powerful, if possible, "imaginative" characteristic - has nothing in common with the attitude towards creating places for people.
Is it any wonder that the emerging architecture is sick!
It can transmit its morbidity to people, making them feel bad and even actually get sick, so that the biological effects can in principle be measured, although current knowledge in this regard is not yet reliable. The situation is even worse because not everyone gets sick from inhaling radon, formaldehyde or fungal spores: there is only a general tendency. There are even more objections when we move on to artistic qualities, which are usually interpreted as subjective, as a luxury that can be resorted to later, when practical issues have been resolved, and even if we can afford it. I take a decidedly opposite view.
Being in full health before going to the clinic with my son, I emerged from it half-dead after sitting for many hours in a rectangular tunnel of a corridor, lined with squares, smelling of plastic, lit by fluorescent lamps and overheated. The same effect occurs as a consequence of the brutal vandalism with which structures are literally planted into an innocent landscape. Architecture can suppress life and even crush it, if we mean not only sensations, but the feeling given to us of gravitation towards freedom. In some places, a person does not feel like a full-fledged citizen, but just a statistical unit; in others, buildings loom overhead with an expression of menace. However, much more often the impact from architecture is much more subtle, and only very recently the social and physiological effects of devastated, harsh, hostile architecture have begun to attract attention.
More than half a century ago, Rudolf Steiner noted that “There is exactly as much lies and crime in the world as there are voids in place of missing art.” He continued that if people were surrounded by living architectural forms and spaces, these negative tendencies would simply disappear over time. When I heard about this for the first time, I thought: what bourgeois nonsense! After all, crime has a complex basis in which socioeconomic inequality plays a huge role. However, if we expand the concept of crime to include exploitative violence against people and their environment, if we recognize that we are not talking about inevitability, but only about a tendency, what Steiner meant becomes clearer.
Animals always respond in the same way to stimuli created by the environment, while people have the ability to transcend the situation. However, in order to rise above the level of unconditioned reflexes, we need to consciously build our lives. None of us are perfect in this regard, and this is why in any static sample there will be a few that behave separately, but the majority will respond to certain stimuli in quite predictable ways.
This century has witnessed rapid urbanization, which is often associated with the erosion of the social support for traditional moral codes. There are countless social aspects of the environment with which modern man encounters, but if we limit ourselves to the properties of the architectural environment itself, we will have to admit that the main tendency of the century was to generate forms, spaces, lines, colors and proportions (not to mention the state of the air , noise, electric fields, etc.), which seem to suck away vital energy, are dead by nature.
With aesthetic starvation, the emotional part of the human being seeks satisfaction in an excess of desires. Deceptive appearances, especially when it comes to finishing, have become the norm. Sterile interiors have become the norm, the quality of which depends on the same tricks - surface cosmetics, lighting, manipulation psychological environment, equipment with the help of which these spaces only become inhabitable. Surrounded on all sides by rigidity and sharpness of forms, aesthetic sensitivity, and along with it, ethical balance, turns out to be dulled. It is not surprising that being surrounded, as most of us are almost all the time, by lifeless artificial materials, we are so eager to limit our aspirations to only what we can actually acquire that we have even tried to enshrine this attitude in political institutions.
It is not surprising that places like this have become notorious for their crime rates. The point is not only and not so much in the ease of conditions for crimes, but also in the frankly faceless, completely devoid of personality, ruthless and loveless environment.
Inseparable from other cause-and-effect chains, intertwined with them, these are the consequences of the structure of the world that we have created around us. However, architecture, although emerging from dead material, does not necessarily have to be dead: it can be full of life. The elements that create it and the connections between them can “sing” and the human heart can resonate in resonance with this melody. Maybe other architects can be considered an exception, but most people, not excluding myself, do not usually look at their surroundings. We breathe it in. We look at postcards or survey views from designated sites, and what we see can be quite entertaining.
However, visual experience touches our heart only when it enters into what we breathe; Most of the time we do not notice our surroundings at all, and then they can have an even stronger impact on our being without encountering conscious resistance. In fact, we spend so much time in or around buildings that the vast majority of our environmental experience is influenced by architecture.
Potentially, architecture is a rather dangerous weapon. The environment can be used to manipulate people: we are ready to accept the environment as a fact and are so rarely aware of it that it can well be used to influence our behavior. It is not at all necessary to remember the Nazi stadiums with their powerfully theatrical methods of influencing the mood of the masses. If we enter a “boutique” with its mood of “vibration” created by music, textures, color, levels and inclined planes, but with the concentration of the light flux on the product that is fashionable to touch, all desires are intensified, and their satisfaction seems to be associated with fact of purchase.
Mood enhancement turns into manipulation if pressure increases. It's rare that a supermarket has even the minimal qualities of an "invitation", but with the help of lighting, the play of signs and colors, and background music, they delicately enhance the excitement of the purchase. It is enough to compare how many and which shelves with goods are brightly lit in shining white with warm display colors and how many are immersed in bluish tones to see signs of this in any supermarket anywhere. Some of this is a consequence of scientific psychotechnics, some is born of the decorator’s imagination, and some is completely free of conscious intention. Not just in the store, not just for the sake of money or power over other people, but in any aspect of environmental design we must recognize that everything we do affects a person's being, the environment, the spirit of the place, the whole worldview. Behind this lies a whole system of social, psychological, environmental consequences, and it is enough to live at least for a short time in a radically different environment in order to admit to ourselves how much we ourselves and our society are shaped by our environment, whether we are talking about distinguishing shades, about values, or about lifestyle.
Architecture is such a powerful agent of influence that how it is made matters to everyone. Very important. The plot of this book is precisely this question: how architecture affects a person and the appearance of a Place, how to approach design and construction in order to bring health rather than illness into life. There are many ways to work with this topic, but describing things you haven't experienced yourself risks being too abstract, wishy-washy, and second-hand. Although I prefer in this regard to describe first of all what I do myself, this does not at all exclude other methods that are more suitable for others. Examples, of necessity, are particular and local, while the essence of the processes that bring a particular example to life are of a universal nature. Other people, in other places, will have to come up with other solutions.
Each of us begins life differently and goes through a series of deeply personal experiences. For this reason alone, someone’s personal style will never fully satisfy another. Style is a very personal matter. Many may recognize and even accept someone's style as a kind of symbol of the times, but if it is not overcome in one's own work, it does not affect its essence.
I have always tried to do without my own style, but it is quite difficult to escape its snares. What I look for inspiration from is the way of looking at objects to recognize what they really are and how they function, and then the corresponding forms appear as if by themselves. This is apparently true for all people, everywhere. My subject is a built environment, my examples are localized in place and time, but the subjects themselves are equally valid for England or New England, the urban space of Tokyo or the suburbs of Sydney, the slum suburbs of South Africa or the forests of Scandinavia. Any building, any place, in any natural or urban landscape, in any culture, in any climate, in any country, has the effects that I describe. Wherever it appears, no matter how different it looks, architecture needs to deal with these subjects in order to become the architecture of human health.