While attending a recent business event, I was asked how what I advocate on Archi-Re financially benefits the architects (and implicitly their offices) that I aim to attract in this process. That made me realize that at a first glance the topic is all about the residents and not about the architects.

I am a dreamer and an idealistic, but I am in no way naive. I understand the world we live in and realize that in order to achieve our goals we do have to speak the languages of the people we try to co-opt. Simon Sinek, as you know by now, is one of my favorite speakers. The principles presented in his explanation of how companies investing in people actually increase their financial gain, also applies in the context of architecture.

•  Making better architecture that aims to increase physical and mental health and implicitly happiness, results in people that work better, take fewer sick days, increase economy and get involved in extra activities, instead of just going home and collapsing of exhaustion.
•  Happier and more rested parents make for better parent child relationships. This positively affects the development of the children and gives them a better emotional base for them to build their future and implicitly the future of their own children.
•  A better and more stable person creates stabler societies and implicitly economies.
•  Making people aware of the benefits of healthy architecture will make them interested in investing in it. This means that architects, engineers, builders and designers will see an increase in service demand. Individuals can thus vote either on a hands on approach and hire an architect or by going to the corporations that use this approach. In time, as the shift becomes visible, the money will increase and the rest of the market will automatically follow.
[clickToTweet tweet=”Architecture will have the chance to re-calibrate itself and focus once again on people and their lives. ” quote=”Architecture will also have the chance to re-calibrate itself and focus once again on people and their lives instead of the needs of the economy. “] •  Architects will be able to connect with their clients in a much better way and work productively together instead of using half their time convincing their clients of better approaches.

•  Better housing conditions increases happiness. Mental health is a well known factor in physical health.
•  Healthier people result in less medical expenses. Which is an added bonus not just for the people themselves, but for insurance companies as well as national budgets.

Obviously architecture is not the only element to have a positive effect on society, economy and the future. There are many factors involved in this process. However architecture is one that has not received as much attention due to its time and financial constraints.

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