Contemporary City: Healing Tool or Utopia?

Abstract

In response to rapid urbanisation globally and increased exposure to stress conditions in contemporary urban environments, this paper discusses links between healing, multi-sensory experience and power strategies employed in contemporary public and consumption spaces. Rather than typically focusing on curing and absence of disease, or healthcare environments, the objective is to investigate the potentials of consumption and everyday environments to overcome mere consumerist goals and become healing tools that would, through power of seduction, actively contribute to improving users’ physical, psychological and social well-being.

The research employs multidisciplinary, self-investigative and phenomenological approaches. It consists of two phases: discourse analysis of related theories and practices, especially the “total healing environment” and “positive distractions” concepts; and indicative post-occupancy evaluation (POE) of consumption spaces in Singapore and Belgrade, Serbia. The POE combines first-person observations, participatory photo-journeys (multi-sensory mapping), interviews and on-site questionnaires, followed by photo, narratives, semi-statistical and spatial analyses.

Findings show that users seek positive stimulations and that the seduction level depends on intensity, diversity and changeability of positive sensory stimuli in space. Apart from nature, social activities, wayfinding and hygiene, which are typically related to health, the participants’ perception of health was also linked to personal interactions with spaces, embodied in seductive body/self-space exchanges, including bodily and mental self-awareness, shared identity and phantasmagorical experiences. Such findings, further discussed through proposed “seduction for healing” concept, may have fruitful implications on theory and design of both healthcare and non-healthcare environments.