A Digital Pre-Occupancy Architectural Toolset for Reducing Stress Levels in Urban Environments

This research examines the effects of the builtenvironment on human stress and anxiety levels, by measuringthe responses of participants as they interact with variousarchitectural design features using Augmented Realitytechnology. Architectural form-making is becoming moredynamic and expressive in today’s world, deviating fromtraditional designs, especially in urban contexts. Currenttechnology enables such forms to be created, but prior to theirconstruction there is no easy way to determine how they mightaffect the stress levels of the people who experience theredesigned environment. The physical geography of cities isalready known to have an effect on human well-being, andspecific design issues have been correlated with negative healthoutcomes, including increased levels of anxiety. However, thepositive or negative changes that can be induced through newdesigns are often just a matter of speculation. Our research helpsto address this issue by developing a prototype interface toevaluate human-experience factors during the design reviewprocess. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate biometric dataobtained from participants through an Augmented Realityexperience, and parsed that data with respect to the participants’personal backgrounds and other demographic information. Theprototype toolset was developed based on three differentarchitectural variables—shape, height, and visual pattern. Theresults from the experiment indicate there is a relationshipbetween these architectural forms and stress levels. This researchcontributes to design pedagogy and practice, and it helps to showhow continuous parametric form generation can be used to betterreduce anxiety levels in future urban environments