Architecture influences our lives in many ways, yet it is something that is often forgotten about. The way buildings are shaped and structured changes the way we feel. The materials and colours used affect our outlook on things and it’s time to start paying attention to architecture.
If you think about how much time you spend in your house, at your university, or at your workplace, do you ever wonder if the building you’re standing in has a story? If the building has an influence on the way it makes you feel? The design of buildings has a huge impact on people psychologically.
Think about hospital design and its influence on the speed at which patients heal. Roger Ulrich conducted a study in 1984 and found that when patients had windows in their rooms that looked out into nature, they recovered faster and needed roughly 10 per cent less pain medication, as opposed to a patient whose bed faced a blank wall.
Architecture has a huge influence on the way we live, and in New Brunswick, we need to start paying attention to it.
Making Architecture Matter is a lecture series starting up next September at the University of New Brunswick. Last Thursday evening, for a crowd of nearly 200, two of the top architecture firms in Atlantic Canada, Arce Architecture and Design Plus, were at the Beaverbrook Art Gallery to present their work and explain why architecture matters.
Acre Architects, based out of Saint John, is the team behind the new Picaroons Microbrewery opening up on Fredericton’s north side. Monica Adair and Stephen Kopp started Acre four years ago, but have already won several awards. Adair was just awarded one of the top prizes an architect can receive in the country, the Young Architect Award by the Royal Architectural Institute of Canada.
In a tweet Thursday night, Acre said, “It was a great night and we’re thrilled to see such interest in architecture.”
Christian Héber and Léo Goguen, from the Moncton based firm Design Plus, also presented their work. Design Plus is responsible for the design of the new CBC building in Moncton. They’ve recently won the New Brunswick Lieutenant-Governor’s Architectural Award for Merit for their project, 83 Botsford, a mixed-use project that houses the firms office on the ground floor and residential apartments above their offices.
There is brilliant and beautiful architecture sprouting up in New Brunswick,. Architecture tells a story. The buildings around you influence the way you feel, the way you love, and the way you look at life. Their design can either foster creativity or strangle innovation.
