Influence of urban space in the happiness of citizens

by Rita Monfort Salvador *

Journal Urbanistica Informazioni special issue. Urban Happines and Public Space. 3rd Biennal of Public
Space. Bimonthly publication, pp.120- 122. Edited by Marichela Sepe, May - June 2015. ISSN: 0392-5005

Happiness is a totally subjective concept for which everyone has their own idea about when and when not
happy and what makes him/her happy and what not. The physical and spatial context, in which people are,
can not make them happy, is a concept too complex and in which too much feelings and real facts influence
to trivialize in that way, but an urban space can help develop this happiness.

Some researches about urban happiness

At the responses to a survey for my PhD Thesis I realize the amazing certainty of this. The PhD thesis is on
urban sustainability and specifically the survey is on the relationship between the behavior of citizens
(civility) and urban space (2015). Not all the survey is related to the relationship between happiness and
urban space, but much of it is related with the feelings caused by this public space. One question,
specifically, is as follows: Consideras que un espacio pblico urbano (su diseo, su paisaje, sus
recorridos) puede influir en la felicidad de las personas que circulan por l? (Do you think that an urban
public space (its design, landscape, paths...) can influence the happiness of people moving for him?)
One week before this survey was finished (when this paper was written), over 85% of people who had
answered had said YES, the rest was divided equally between NO and Don't Know. The interest of this
response is that not only professionals can think that an urban space can influence the happiness of citizens,
but citizens themselves, external of town planning, are aware that these spaces influence their own
happiness.
Other research also shows that. This investigation (Quercia et al. 2014), published by Cornell University,
proves that it is possible define not only the shortest paths, but also the most beautiful, the most peaceful and
the happiest, thanks to an algorithm with reviews of citizens and their contributions on websites like Google
Street View or Flickr. This was only studied in cities of London and Boston, but it shows another way of
differentiate the urban paths, not only by the shortest or the most touristic:
Buildings and neighbourhoods speak. They speak of egalitarianism or elitism, beauty or ugliness,
acceptance or arrogance. The aim of UrbanGems is to identify the visual cues that are generally associated
with concepts difficult to define such beauty, happiness, quietness, or even deprivation. The difficult task of
deciding what makes a building beautiful, or what is sought after in a quiet location is outsourced to the
users of this site using comparisons of pictures. With a comprehensive list of aesthetic virtues at hand, we
would be more likely to systematically understand and re-create the environments we intuitively love
Giorgiana Varna (2014) talks about the civility of public spaces and she defines these kind of places as
clean, friendly and inviting areas:
Civility refers to the overall cleanliness and tidiness of a public place, including those elements that are key
in making a public place an inviting and attractive area (bins, green areas, public toilets...)
These areas could be define as a pleasant or nice areas. These kind of areas are the ones which make people
happier. A place that you can consider pleasant, without stress, without anything that you dont like, it's a
place where you feel good, so the most sure is that this place improve your happiness more than other one.

Citizens: adults and children

When a space leads that happiness, people return to it without even realizing it. As in the previous study,
where people knew which route choose to make them happier between all the existing routes, people know
which spaces have to choose to feel better. And people attract more people (Mikoleit and Prckhauer 2011),
so spaces that have an influence on the happiness of people indirectly also attract more people than if they do
not cause any feeling or cause the opposite.
For adults a space that can influence your happiness could be defined as a safe, friendly, beautiful space and
in which they feel good. To get it there are some elements that can help such as urban furniture or vegetation,
as well as good management climate in outer space (Olgyay 1963), cutting wind, favoring the sunshine
wherever convenient or causing shadows where needed, making the urban space as pleasant as possible.
When we talk about children, these characteristics of the space are simplified, as all they need to be happy is
a place to play. Something as simple and upon which so many people are claiming now (as Francesco
Tonucci -Frato- does). Sometimes with a space large enough for running, cycling or use the scooter is more
than enough for them. Obviously the more elements they have to play, the better for them: stairs, ramps,
sculptures that can touch and play with them ... Everyone knows that children have a great imagination to
invent games where adults do not see anything. No need to build a playground (although they are also
important in children). The "Miroir d'Eau" (Water mirror) of Bordeaux or water jets from Duke of York
Square (London) are a good example of how something as simple as a water jet arising from ground can
transform a space to turn it into a "playground" where children (and adults) can have fun and cool with water
during good weather and return to being a normal space without anything during the cold winter.

Figure 1 "Miroir d'Eau" (Water mirror) of Bordeaux, an example of how an urban space can influence at peoples happiness

The wow factor

Another characteristic of urban space that influences the happiness of both children and adults is the wow
factor. The son of a friend of Barcelona always drew their home with flowers on the outside as a garden. She
did not understand it because they live in an apartment, so one day asked him why he always drew their
house with a garden when they had no garden and he replied that they were flowers of the sidewalk. Most of
the sidewalks tiles in Barcelona have a drawing of a flower with four petals (known as la flor de Barcelona the flower of Barcelona - or el panot de flor - the flower tile -). It has become a tourist object, but for this
child these flowers are more and are part of his home: two happy endings for an element of urban space
On the other hand, monotony is always boring and see urban spaces with the same urban landscape and
nothing different, one after another, just does not cause any feeling, except boredom. It is not necessary that
every space to be totally different from the side, only are needed details such as a map on the ground, a
curious plaque, some urban art ... Elements which surprise you when you meet them and make that you want
to return to that area only to see them again. Although one of the characteristics of civility is cleaning spaces,
as we have seen before, sometimes not clean something (without going to the extreme) may also contribute
to the surprise that can bring us happiness: the flowers falling from the trees "staining" colored the city floor,
or brown leaves in autumn covering the park as a tapestry could be a good example. Even certain materials
can help this: without addressing if they are better or worse for their specific function, there are some
asphalts in which, curiously, leaves falling from trees are impregnated into it like a tattoo it were, causing
change cityscape naturally.

Figure 2 Leaves on the street: one asphalt does not retain the leaves, while the other one retains them. Its like if the leaves were
tattooed on the floor. When the leaves stop falling the ones that are on the floor disappear.

It has not been talked at this paper about what do not produce happiness of public space but the opposite
feeling, which is relatively clear and recognizable by the vast majority. Something that almost everyone
agrees. Just to name some of its characteristics: noise, dirt, not find a place to sit when we need or can not

shelter us in a shade from the sun in days of extreme heat. They are just some examples of what can do that
people avoid a specific space.
As you can see at not time at this paper is said that urban spaces make people happy, if not happier. This
is important because, as it is said at the beginning, happiness is a complex concept and, although the urban
space is very powerful, it's not so much as has the key of citizens happiness. But it was also seen that urban
spaces and urban design can do a lot to improve citizens' happiness, and that this statement is longer
considered a reality
At the end having urban spaces which influence citizens happiness depends of all of us: urban planning
professionals, urban and landscape designers, maintenance workers, citizens It has to be one of the main
goals of the urban space: to make people happier

Notes
* Architect. Doctoral Candidate, Program in Architecture, Building, Town Planning and Landscape, Universitat Politncia de
Valncia (Spain). Research Student, Bartlett School of Planning, ritamonfortsalvador@gmail.com

References
Mikoleit, A., Prckhauer, M. 2011 Urban Code, 100 Lessons for Understanding the City. The MIT Press,
Zurich.
Olgyay, V. 1963 Design with climate. Bioclimatic approach to architectural regionalism. Princeton
University Press, Princeton.
Quercia, D., Schifanella, R., Aiello, LM. 2014 The Shortest Path to Happiness: Recommending Beautiful,
Quiet, and Happy Routes in the City. Cornell Universitys arXiv: arXiv:1407.1031, Ithaca, New York.
Varna, G. 2014 Measuring Public Space: The Star Model. Ashaget Publishing Limited, Surrey.