Essay

Injecting Reward into Architectural Narrative

What story does your architecture tell occupants as they travel through your building project? And as you design that project, how do you keep building occupants engaged, inspired, and curious? One way to do the latter is to reward your building visitors along their experiential journey.

Reward within architectural narrative design can take many forms. The key is to create a sequential or non-sequential narrative within architectural space that at times surprises, informs, or even evokes deep joy. After all, a design that remains emotionally flat or even intellectually plateaued will not leave a favorable impression or be functionally meaningful for people.

Three Architectural Narrative Examples that Reward

The following three architectural narrative reward examples show how you can use your creative design thinking to create innovative environments that uplift quality of life for your building occupants:

• Happiness Milestones: Will your building occupants spend a lot of time within the environment you build? In this case, it may be wise to reward occupants with an “unfolding story”. For example, within a shopping mall, designed milestones could be integrated that nurture and reward people for socializing. This simple intervention will uplift happiness within shoppers while also helping to combat loneliness within urban areas.

• Contemplative Experiences: To reward building visitors with time for reflection and deep introspection within a school, office building, or sacred spiritual place, one can design with the movement of natural sunlight that rewards with the “story” the light tells. Just imagine experiencing an architectural narrative that changes throughout the day as sunlight animates its features. This becomes a reward of joy and a moment for deep contemplation for people that experience this unfolding phenomenon.

• Healthy Habits: Within a multi-level architectural design, there is great opportunity to encourage healthy living. Perhaps within this building type, there is a space that overlooks the city skyline. With its breathtaking views, this overlook evokes curiosity end invites people to travel upward within the building in ways that invite them to exercise by choosing to take the stairs.

By using reward within architectural narrative design, it becomes possible to create more innovative and poetic experiences for occupants. Thus, I invite you to explore how you can integrate reward into the design narratives of the buildings you create. You may find that through reward you are able to expand your architectural designs’ function, beauty, and meaning.

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