Space consumption - how much space does a person need to be happy?
Christian W. Blaser
25. October 2023
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Space influences and characterises our lives. Space is everywhere, surrounds us and is in constant interaction with our everyday activities. We work differently in different spaces, spaces influence our behaviour and well-being and create different situations.
Demands on living, working and public space are constantly changing. The amount of living space occupied by one person in Switzerland has risen constantly in recent decades and has doubled in the last 50 years. The construction and operation of space leaves a multiple ecological footprint. This concerns the consumption of resources during construction, operation, maintenance and renovation, as well as mobility.
The consumption of living space is a sign of prosperity. People earn more, have fewer and later children, more leisure time and more money available for housing. Individualised family forms, in which couples live separately and have two infrastructures for themselves and their children, second homes and longer life expectancy also contribute to the increase in living space consumption. Living and working space, but also public space, is an expression of individuality, success and prosperity and goes far beyond the necessary function and benefits.
Does the consumption of large areas of space make us happy? Too much space leads to the accumulation of useless things and the display of achievements, which can also be a burden rather than a blessing in our lives. What does spatial happiness really mean? The location, the room proportions, the acoustics, the light, the relationship to the surroundings, the warmth and coolness, the neighbourhood, the open fire, the roommates, the homely atmosphere, the smell of the materials or the size, surface area, splendour, the technical gimmicks, the materials or the swimming pool?
Remedies for the excessive consumption of space include sensibly planned floor plans and layouts of flats and alternative forms of living such as shared flats, multi-generation houses, densification of living space in properties, multiple room utilisation. Perhaps renting instead of owning will also reduce the consumption of space, simplify earthly life and create space for the spiritual?
Spatial happiness only arises through the (meaningful) utilisation of space, living in and with space. Architectural space has physical and social dimensions and can be perceived with all the senses. Space is valuable and precious and should be well thought out, planned and built.
Christian W. Blaser
25. October 2023
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