Happiness is essential to positive mental health—and crucial to student safety and wellbeing on campus. As such, achieving happiness should be integral to the master planning process to improve the campus experience for students, faculty, and visitors.
Here are several ways to start thinking about planning a happy campus.
Social Spaces and Sound
Social relationships often are influenced by how sound can change spatial experiences. In general, we consider small rooms more pleasant and safer than big rooms, yet loud sound can compromise the comfort of any space. To mitigate the impact of sound, simple design strategies can go a long way. For instance, vegetated buffers and water elements can effectively create smaller “rooms” in a gathering place and muffle ambient noise so conversations can take precedence. In outdoor spaces, well-located plantings, trees, flora and water elements can reduce street noise, create a relaxing and inviting environment, and introduce positive sound, such as song birds or softly gurgling water. Adding landscaping and shaded walking paths is particularly beneficial at commuter schools with a lot of surface parking or urban campuses connected to the concrete street grid.