WW 14: Making space matter

Natasha Reid on prioritising wellbeing, human outcomes, and community participation in architecture and design

Hello & welcome back to another edition of Wellwatching: an exploration of the places and spaces that help us feel well by me, Alex Grieves. For more conversations like this, have a read through the archive.

This month’s conversation features the brilliant Natasha Reid, founder of MATTER . SPACE . SOUL: a multidisciplinary studio specialising in designing for wellbeing and user experience. Working fluidly across architecture, interiors, placemaking and public art, Natasha focuses on the emotional, social, psychological and cultural impacts of places.  Natasha has been named as a "Groundbreaker" (Wallpaper*) and "Woman to Watch" (Elle Decoration), and is a Fellow of the Centre for Conscious Design and an Associate of the Quality of Life foundation. Natasha holds a MA in Architecture from Cambridge University. 

I loved the opportunity to speak to Natasha about how to prioritise wellbeing within the worlds of architecture and design; working towards human outcomes over the creation of assets; and the rise in community participation in creating public spaces. Have a read below.

Tell me a bit about yourself: what do you do? How did you get started in this field? What’s been your professional trajectory?

My background is in architecture; I gravitated towards studying the subject as I loved art, maths and science. Architecture brought these disciplines together for me, and allowed me to explore how people live from a number of different angles. 

I spent the first part of my career working for some great architecture practices here in London, but I was always interested in exploring the human side of places more deeply. So I decided to spend a bit of time outside of architecture as an artist. For me, this was a way to delve into the more intangible aspects of our surroundings, and how they affect how people feel. One of my first projects as an artist was called The Embassy for Refugees, a space that represented people that were often excluded from the city and society. This project was a new starting point for me, and led to a series of test projects looking at the emotional and social side of architecture and space. I eventually housed these under my own design practice, MATTER . SPACE . SOUL, which focuses on how places can address our human needs and improve our health and wellbeing. I have had a mix of public and private sector clients – for example, one of the first was the City of London – which offers me a lot of variety in my work.

How do you define ‘wellbeing’ in the context of your work?

I view it through the lens of human experience. Instead of seeing buildings as physical objects or containers, I view them as spaces with the potential to shape peoples’ lives through the emotional, psychological and social impact that they can have. Places created with wellbeing in mind can inspire moments of joy, magic, connection, and belonging.

Increasingly, I’m exploring how places can empower people too. One of most important psychological factors for feeling happy in a given place is having a sense of control, so it’s important to factor in ways people can adjust a space to suit their needs. On a larger scale, it’s about how people can have a say in the way spaces are created, so that they benefit the wider community.

What’s an example of your work that best represents this approach?

In 2015,  I won a competition commissioned by the Greater London Authority and New London Architecture (NLA) to design solutions for London’s housing crisis. My concept, “Intimate Infrastructure”, was rooted in the idea that housing developments can be designed to help people feel more sociable and connected at scale, through innovative design that prioritises quality of life and sense of community. I still use this thinking to make places fit people, rather than the other way around.

In the context of the built environment, how do you think people’s understanding of wellbeing has changed over the past few years? What do people need, want and expect?

When I first started working independently in 2013, my focus on wellbeing and social issues was considered quite unconventional, even though there are practices like Gehl architects that have always been doing “people-centred” design. Pre-pandemic, there were more socially-engaged practices emerging, but they were still far from the mainstream. The pandemic has really been the catalyst for the wider public to fully understand the impact that places have on us, and shift their expectations of how spaces they spend time in should make them feel.

The more that wellbeing and quality of life are top of the agenda in society, the more opportunities designers and architects have to get support and buy-in for these approaches  from clients – with shared language and new frameworks. It’s shifted the business conversation significantly: whereas before I'd have to explain the value of wellbeing or social impact, it’s now relatively well-understood. The Social Value Act, a piece of legislation that requires public sector projects to prove how they create social value, has significantly helped things over the last decade as well. This is all reflected in the increasing number of architecture practices that are looking at the social impact of architecture on communities. It seems the topic of wellbeing is having a similar journey to sustainability - going from fringe to front-and-centre.

In light of major forces impacting the way we live (e.g. Covid-19, increasing urbanisation, changing family structures) what do you think cities and private developers need to prioritise when it comes to individuals’ and communities’ wellbeing?

The pandemic highlighted the full extent of structural inequalities within cities, and the negative impacts that factors like poor housing and lack of access to green space – key social determinants of health – have on people’s quality of life. So in terms of urban living, we simply cannot go back to the status quo – we must do better by these communities.

On the bright side, I think the shift to flexible, at-home work has led to a renaissance in interest around local neighbourhoods and the concept of the 15-Minute City, where everything people need is accessible within walking or cycling distance. There’s an opportunity to create a new breed of neighbourhood hubs that can offer people increased social interaction and a sense of kind of belonging within their place. That connectedness is something I’ve focused a lot on, as designing places to support interaction is a very effective intervention to tackle loneliness. I’m excited about the new potential for going local.

Presumably, architecture and design has always had an element of helping people live well. So what do you think is wrong with the way architects, urban planners, and other related professionals currently approach wellbeing in their work? What are the barriers to fixing these issues?

While I do think that the architecture and design industry in general values designing for people, it’s been difficult to simply quantify the commercial benefits for clients because it is so complex. People-friendly places might not necessarily feature packing in the most units into a site, but over the long-term there is a lot of value to be created. At the same time, deep research on the psychological impact of space has long been siloed in academia, without being able to impact implementation. Luckily, specialists across psychology, neuroscience and design are increasingly collaborating to surface and integrate research showing the impact of the built environment on wellbeing into architectural practice. And specialists like environmental psychologists, for example, help make the connection. They do come at an additional cost, so it’s about making the case for the right research and specialists to be brought in. There is also now a great deal of industry discussion about integrating public health and placemaking at the scale of urban planning, which in a way is going full circle; historically public health has been a huge driver of change and development in cities like London. 

Why do you think we need a more holistic approach to wellbeing in architectural design?

For a long time, the industry status quo has been about creating assets that serve a certain function - rather than creating human outcomes – which ultimately separates people and communities from their environment, essentially their habitat. Covid in particular has reminded us that we’re all part of a single ecosystem, individually and collectively. The more we consider what we create in the context of human wellbeing as well as the planet’s wellbeing, the better off we will be. This is why I find it very difficult to get on board with current conversations about the metaverse. Why are we insisting on disconnecting ourselves from the natural world and creating digital infrastructure, when we haven't even sorted out our physical environment? And how that is going to answer to our psychological and emotional needs? We need to avoid this sort of disconnection and I think the power of tech can be harnessed to work for us in a much more humane way.

On the flip side, what are the best examples that you’re seeing of architecture and urban planning evolving to cater to people’s overall wellbeing?

I’m glad to see that design for wellbeing is becoming a lot more commonplace. This niche within architecture continues to grow, and we’re seeing more crossover between health and design that didn’t previously exist. For example, I'm part of an organisation called the Center for Conscious Design, which is a design think tank that explores the ways in which knowledge from science can inform design. Academia is reflecting this shift too; at UCL, there is a masters course for Health, Wellbeing and Sustainable buildings that launched a few years ago. One interesting growth area is projects centred around biophilic design, which either integrates actual green elements into buildings, or takes design inspiration from forms, experiences and patterns in nature (the shape of seashells, or the way light moves, for example) which has been shown to lower stress levels. Hopefully, there will be a whole new movement of architects and designers who adopt this knowledge and approach, which also ties in with sustainable design by working in harmony with nature. 

Over the next five years, what are the biggest trends that you think we’ll see within the built environment (public spaces, work space, hospitality, etc)? Where do you think growth in this space will come from next?

As we continue to witness the breakdown between home, work and social spaces, multi-use and multi-purpose developments are continuing to grow in popularity. I think places and buildings will just need to be more responsive and adaptable to what people need. The places that will win out are those that help people feel like they belong – places that they want to keep coming back to.

There’s also been a huge push for more community participation in the creation of these local spaces. Consultation is common practice, but co-designing spaces with members of the community is a different, deeper level of interaction that leads to better outcomes for all. In 2021, the National Model Design Code – a sort of design playbook for every council – was released. This helps councils develop their own local design code that can incorporate the community's feedback on their needs, and is shaped specifically for that area. I think this will help the future development of locally rich, meaningful spaces.

What does ‘wellbeing’ mean to you?

I see wellbeing not as a state of mind, but as more of an everyday practice. For me it’s about cultivating what is good for you, incrementally over time. Like regularly tending to a garden.

What's been your biggest wellbeing breakthrough over the last year?

Over the last year I’ve focused on how to balance everything in my life by practising mindfulness. Being able to be present and find happiness in everyday moments is what I aim for, rather than feeling like I always need to produce or acheive. More “being” and less “doing”. As a result, I think I'm a lot more aware of the environment around me and feel more connected to the world in different ways. If I feel stressed, I try to get into nature and look at something beautiful – like the clouds – and it really helps to get perspective and nourish the soul.

What’s the next challenge that you’d love to take on?

This year is very much a new season for me as I’m working on a range of new formats to deliver my human-centred work on a larger scale to create more meaningful impact. I was recently selected to be part of Public Practice - a scheme which places built environment professionals in the public sector to improve the quality, equality and sustainability of places. I am working with Brent Council on placemaking in this very diverse part of London, which includes developing new policy and looking at how to embed health and wellbeing, sense of community and social cohesion into requirements that will eventually shape the new developments in this area. It’s an amazing opportunity to channel my research into strategies that can bring about change at scale and that feed into the borough’s wider goals to tackle inequalities as well. Alongside this work, I'm also exploring collaborating with bigger architecture practices, and am also now part of a  network of multi-disciplinary professionals called the LDN Collective who are doing great projects together. I’ve also gone back to developing my art practice through painting - it’s nice to balance the long-term big projects with something where you can create beauty quite quickly!

To learn more about Natasha and her work, check out her Instagram and Twitter.