IMAGINE “BETSY,” AN ELDERLY WOMAN living by herself in a multifam-ily residential building. In a week-long series of intense storms, her building
experiences serious flood damage. Suddenly, her most fundamental needs are
in jeopardy: Her lights don’t work, the food in her fridge is going bad, she’s
stuck at her building because she can’t drive, and she doesn’t know where to
go or who to ask for help.
For individuals like Betsy, the stress of experiencing such a natural disaster
and its direct impact on shelter needs can extend well beyond the actual crisis.
To understand more about how the functionality and resilience of a structure
can prevent mental trauma for its inhabitants, the architectural/design firm
Perkins+Will commissioned a study to identify the most probable crisis events
a building might face and to develop design solutions to address the resulting anxieties of building occupants. According to Weathering the Storm: Mental
Health and Resilient Design, “Crisis events affect the mental health of individuals by causing anxiety-related responses that can later evolve into chronic and
severe mental health disorders.” I M
A
G
E
:
I
S
T
O
C
K
,
V
I
C
N
T
1.
1. Design strategy can help to
mitigate the negative mental
health effects of a natural or
man-made crisis.
Design-WISE:
Preparing for a Crisis
