#1 Folly Bridge Over A Pond In Dunsborough Park, A Historic Country Estate In The Village Of Ripley, Surrey, England
#3 The Art Nouveau Style Liberty Bridge Crossing The Danube In The Morning Sunlight, Budapest, Hungary. Originally Built In Late 19th Century, Rebuilt After World War II
It’ll come as no surprise that our environments shape and affect us. Not just physically but mentally and emotionally, too. Overstimulation can be exhausting. Meanwhile, gray, drab, boring, purely functionalist surroundings can be extremely demotivating. On the flip side, we can feel inspired by truly aesthetic works of art, nature, user-friendly urban design decisions, and architects who see the need for balance between beauty and function, not just the latter. How you build and design cities matters.
According to the American Psychiatric Association, over half of the world’s population lives in cities, and this number will only increase in the future. “Living in urban areas has been associated with increased risk for mental disorders, including anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia. Research using functional magnetic resonance imaging has identified changes in the brain indicating that urban upbringing and city living are linked to social stress processing.”
#4 Cemetery Next To The Late 12th Century-13th Century Borgund Stave Church, Lærdal, Vestland County, Norway
#5 Greenhouse At The Botanical Garden Of Curitiba, Brazil (1991); Designed By Architect Abraão Assad, Who Was Inspired By The Crystal Palace In London
#6 Ahoopāy Is A Form Of Decorative Honeycomb Vaulting Present In Persian Architecture. The Picture Is From Shah Mosque, Esfahan Iran
The APA states that city living is linked to worse air pollution, increased noise, crime, social inequality, stress from sensory overload, and a lack of open space. On the flip side, cities can also provide various career opportunities, better education, proper healthcare, and social interaction.
In the meantime, one study noted that urbanization brings with it social, economic, and psychological changes. Urbanization affects mental health via increased stressors from polluted and overcrowded environments, less social support, and higher levels of violence.
The sprawling architecture subreddit—which we can’t directly name here because internet culture has changed a ton since the online community was founded in 2011—currently has a following of 2.1 million members.
This year, the online community celebrated its 13th birthday. And it’s incredibly likely that they’ll be having more of those in the future.
It’s not hard to see why so many people are such big fans of the online group. For one, it’s not like buildings as a genre are suddenly going to disappear: architecture is a core part of human life and it’s always going to be important, no matter if we’re building space elevators or designing affordable housing.
#13 The Architecture Inside Of The 1100 Years Old Sahastrabahu Temple In Rajasthan, India
Furthermore—and this is key, we think—the photos are incredibly beautiful to look at. With so much content and information being produced, posted, shared, and reshared every single day on the internet, it’s easy to get lost in the tide.
However, photos as aesthetic as these ones are hard to miss. They stand out from the crowd, in the best possible way.
The subreddit mainly focuses on individual images of buildings, not cities, skylines, or landscapes. If you come across a great photo that you’d like to share, be sure to include at least a smidgen of context about the place.
For instance, you could mention the location and the name of the building. That way, your audience will find it easier to do research about the place or even put it on their bucket lists of places to visit.
