Made for Belonging Studio

Architecture of Well-Being: Inclusivity, Health, and the Spaces We Create

Following my one-month intensive analyzing how the design of our built environments shape inclusivity, well-being, and connection.

At Converse, January was dedicated to Jan Term, a month-long intensive course focused on a single subject. Inspired by those college experiences, I dedicated this January to exploring the theme: “Architecture of Well-Being: Inclusivity, Health, and the Spaces We Create.” My goal is to understand how architecture and built environments influence well-being by studying art and design, examining issues in Atlanta, and reflecting on community experiences across the United States. This topic is personal to me because I have always been curious about how our surroundings shape our lives and interactions. I have consistently noticed the differences between the environments I have entered and want to continue articulating my passion for understanding and advocating for inclusive spaces that promote well-being. Below are my thoughts following books, podcasts, music, and experiences that underscore the significance of our built environments in shaping how we feel, move, and interact with the world.

1) This month, I read The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness by Emily Anthes. The book examines a range of spaces, including homes, hospitals, office buildings, and prisons, and analyzes how design elements such as stairs and amphibious architecture (structures built on foundations that float securely during flooding) influence our experience of space. I learned that indoor environments profoundly affect physiological health, physical well-being, and social connections. For example, proximity to nature can support recovery, poor fluorescent lighting in offices can significantly harm mental health and work performance (preach!), and solitary confinement in prisons can cause severe psychological damage. The quote, “People are sent to prison as punishment. They’re not sent to prison forpunishment (Anthes 152),” illustrates that the environments we inhabit have a greater impact on us than we realize.

Our bodies are constantly taking in feedback from the world around us. Something as small as lighting can signal to our bodies a sense of vulnerability or danger, and the orientation of a hospital room can affect how quickly our bodies begin to heal. This is because environmental factors can influence our stress levels, affecting the nervous system, which, in turn, impacts our overall health and well-being. For instance, poor lighting can disrupt our circadian rhythms, leading to sleep disturbances and increased stress. The color and layout of a room can trigger emotional responses that affect our mood and mental state. Spaces matter, but it’s the considerations made before building that leave a lasting impact for better or for worse. When we consider the broader themes of inclusivity and well-being, these environmental factors highlight the need for intentional design. Through thoughtful planning, architects and designers can create spaces that not only meet basic physical needs but also promote psychological comfort and social connectivity. This ensures that spaces are accessible and accommodating for all, fostering communities where everyone feels safe and valued.

2) I also read Strangers Need Strange Moments Together by Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, highlighting their work designing interactive public spaces. The book illustrates how creative placemaking combines play, art, and community, sparking joy among strangers. A notable project, Walk Walk Dance, utilizes music-making lines to challenge how people move through public space. This exploration of public spaces not only emphasizes creativity but also aligns with the theme of well-being and inclusivity. By transforming spaces into inviting, interactive environments, the project encourages inclusive participation and fosters a sense of belonging, both critical components in nurturing community well-being.

This resource made me realize that my thoughts of building awe-filled moments that pull in young and old and strengthen a community’s identity are possible!

3) I learned about Tonika Lewis Johnson’s project Inequity for Sale in partnership with the National Public Housing Museum in Chicago, IL, outlining the inequities of Black home owners and the drastic markups they faced from the land sale contracts orchestrated by mortgage companies, leaving the homes of evicted families vacant, oftentimes to this day. Tonika is from Greater Inglewood and shared a map of all homes taken from Black families in her community. To honor the families who lost their homes, Tonika partnered with architect and urban designer Paola Aguirre to create and install land markers at the sites of stolen homes and has since worked to acquire the homes and turn them into community gathering spaces. This project reminded me of an oral history exhibition I went to in November 2025 called The Porch led by City of Atlanta Department of City Planning’s Office of Design, story archivist Nedra Deadwyler, story advocate Shannon Turner, and artist Stefnie Cerny sharing stories from legacy residents and using GIS mapping to visually share how urban renewal, specifically the construction of the highway system, in Atlanta damaged the homes of local and primarily Black legacy residents in Atlanta.

The past influences the future. These two local conversations parallel the idea that communities can visually reflect feelings of abandonment and panic (historically, racially charged) and ultimately decide the winners and losers of design. It is essential that these stories and projects, such as those above, live on in the knowledge of decision-makers and community members to protect local assets, including small businesses, grocery stores, libraries, churches, and more. Reflecting on these histories, it is crucial to integrate this awareness into current design and policy decisions. By understanding the implications of past injustices, planners and architects can work towards creating spaces that not only acknowledge but actively rectify historical inequities. This means prioritizing policies that safeguard community assets and promote inclusivity and resilience, ensuring that all residents have equal opportunities to benefit from their environments.

To address these historical inequities, we could advocate for the development and preservation of community-oriented spaces and establish participatory design processes that include historically marginalized communities in planning and decision-making. These steps could reinforce the equitable distribution of development benefits across communities, fostering a more inclusive urban fabric.

4) The Last Dinner Party’s ‘From the Pyre’ is theatre in an album. Full of deep emotions, dramatic vocal changes, and changing paces. I appreciated how dramatic and over-the-top this album is, and this group takes it to another level, using their music videos to depict just that. It is possible for us to change our perception of how a singular place like a theatre can be taken out of context and turned into something new and unexpected.

5) When We All Get to Heaven produced by Eureka Street Productions is a 10 part documentary project following the Metropolitan Community Church (MCC) of San Francisco, examining the establishment of a gay-positive church along with its congregation’s triumphs and challenges amidst the AIDS crisis and all of the social and political discourse that came with being religious and gay in the 80s and 90s, including the loss of 500 of the churches members and later their lead pastor. This podcast follows the archives of over 1,200 cassette tapes of sermons held at MCC. This was an incredible experience taking in the life of a church that faced loss and grief, the unknown and known, and still held faith within the walls of a church doing things differently.

Churches are sacred places, and this story is an important part of the conversation about the mechanics of fostering belonging and community. This story also signals to me that a place’s identity determines its success. Without MCC members speaking truth into who they are and what they believed in, being a church with AIDS during a time when society condemned the virus, the church could have easily crumbled at the first sight of the growing AIDS epidemic. Identity is key to building community. To further understand this concept, we can connect it to the larger idea of place identity and collective efficacy, which suggests that a strong sense of identity within a group or place enhances resilience and adaptability. Not to say all members of anything have to look, feel, and sound alike, but a sense of pride or recognition of oneself in the thing they are a part of can determine the success of the thing.

6) I attended the Atlanta Regional Commission’s first Community Forum of 2026, and I left feeling energized about the intersection of art and housing here in Atlanta. If I had to summarize the meeting with a tagline, it would be “Come Build with Us,” alluding to long-term efforts to keep locals informed and engaged about happenings and issues facing their neighborhoods and regions as a whole. This year, ARC is exploring the launch of a pilot art project to spark conversation about housing inequities and community care, leading to long-term solutions, with the hope that the 75 municipalities within its primary planning region will use it to foster community buy-in. This comes at a time when Atlanta, ahead of the World Cup, is making efforts to spruce up the place, similar to efforts ahead of the Olympics in 1996. This same week, Hayden and I listened to Rose Scott interviewing Beltline employees about their efforts to promote local businesses, ahead of an anticipated 300,000 unique visitors coming to our city. This collaborative conversation included the viewpoints of artists, community members, elected officials, housing experts, consultants, city planners, students, and me (somewhere in the middle of it all :))

What I found most interesting about this conversation is that we focused less on the influx of humans coming to Atlanta and shifted the focus to those who are already here. Which, at first, seems counterintuitive but, in theory, makes perfect sense. Atlanta didn’t see lasting change after the Olympics, and some areas of our city were left to die after the attention waned. This time, the approach larger organizations are taking is leaning more toward uplifting those who call this city home.

7) All of this in action: This one is a bit of a cheat, but over the holidays, we visited the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, PA, and my absolute favorite part of the museum included the collection of Andy Warhol’s random possessions and the Silver Clouds room created in 1966, consisting of a room full of floating metallic balloons. Made of a mixture of air and helium, you volley the balloons sustained in the air by giant fans, and they float mesmerizingly in the space. Similarly, Cj Hendry’s recent installation “Keff Joons” transformed a warehouse in the middle of New York into the site of spectacle and imagination.

Yes to more moments of play between ages. Yes to more imagination in our spaces. Yes to changing our minds and rethinking. Yes to acknowledging and honoring the past, and to thinking about the future. This is how design influences change locally and beyond. This work is ever-evolving and nuanced at the intersection of art, the humanities, design, and development.

Reflecting on this month-long journey, I am struck by how deeply our environments shape our daily lives, health, and sense of belonging. The stories, books, projects, and experiences I explored reaffirmed that architecture and design are not just about structures. They are about people, history, and the future we want to build together. To truly foster well-being and inclusivity, we must intentionally design spaces that honor past injustices, invite participation, and celebrate imagination and play. The work of creating equitable, joyful, and resilient environments is ongoing and requires collaboration across disciplines and communities. As I move forward, I am inspired to continue learning, advocating, and contributing to spaces that nurture connection, creativity, and well-being for all

Resources:

  • Emily Anthes, The Great Indoors: The Surprising Science of How Buildings Shape Our Behavior, Health, and Happiness.
  • Mouna Andraos and Melissa Mongiat, Strangers Need Strange Moments Together.
  • Website: https://futurespaces.com/recordings/daily-tlj
  • Tonika Lewis Johnson, Inequity for Sale. Website: 

https://inequityforsale.com

https://www.heavenpodcast.org

Leave a comment