The rise in interest in wellbeing, heightened during the COVID pandemic, challenged the way we think about what it means to be healthy. While many people in recent years have researched well-being as the intersection of physical and mental health, few have explored the role of architecture in spaces with these programs. Like any service profession, architects have a duty to contribute to the health and wellbeing of the users of these buildings. This thesis aims to question the typical building type of fitness and wellness centers and propose a more integrated architectural model, enhanced with elements of the natural environment which play a role in the user's quest for total wellbeing.The final proposal is sited at an all-girls school in Bethesda, Maryland - the Holton-Arms School. / Master of Architecture / The rise in interest in wellbeing, heightened during the COVID pandemic, challenged the way we think about what it means to be healthy. While many people in recent years have researched well-being as the intersection of physical and mental health, few have explored the role of architecture in spaces with these programs. Like any service profession, architects have a duty to contribute to the health and wellbeing of the users of these buildings. This thesis aims to question the typical building type of fitness and wellness centers and propose a more integrated architectural model, enhanced with elements of the natural environment which play a role in the user's quest for total wellbeing.The final proposal is sited at an all-girls school in Bethesda, Maryland - the Holton-Arms School.

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The Coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has affected countries all over the world and impacted many areas of our lives. Research studying psychosocial issues caused by Covid-19 addressed that during the pandemic well-being was lower. Well-being integrates mental health, clinical and developmental theories to provide a better understanding of positive psychological functioning. An abundance of studies demonstrated that natural environments, both wild and managed, have a positive effect on people’s being. In the present study, the changes in people’s nature visits as well as the links between nature visits and well-being has been investigated. The current sample (1902 participants) was from the corona survey, a subsample of the SLOSH. During the Covid-19 pandemic, some people started visiting nature more, while others reduced their visits. Well-being was lower than before. The observed directions of the associations were: nature visits were positively linked with the quality of life, while depressive moods from 2020 and 2021 were linked negatively. Change in forest visits (<65 female group) was the best well-being predictor from all types of nature exposure.

Stress and performance related sick leaves is a growing problem in architecture schools. This work aims to find a way to work with a project that includes physical and mental well-being. By tracking everything we do, consume, feel and other external circumstances we have built up a large base of information about ourselves. Data that we have analyzed and tried to understand when and why we are doing well, and if it has any relation to how we work. To have something to measure against, we have created a architectural project, in form of a full scale volume. The design process fore this volume is made from ourselves and our bodies, in extension the data. The two tracks has been very codependent, and could not function without each other. The project has worked as a guid, a help for us in our further life as architects. We are two people with different way of thinking. We have different results on what’s working. We want to convey that this project is very personal and not a general manual for architects. It is a study in how one can think to finding a working-method that is good for one's self.

Yes / This paper examines the value of participatory approaches within interventions aimed at promoting mental health and wellbeing in the workplace. Specifically the paper explores data from the thematic evaluation of the Mental Health and Employment project strand within the Altogether Better programme being implemented in England in the Yorkshire and Humber region, which was funded through the BIG Lottery and aimed to empower people across the region to lead better lives. The evaluation combined a systematic evidence review with semi-structured interviews across mental health and employment projects. Drawing on both evaluation elements, the paper examines the potential of workplace-based 'business champions' to facilitate organizational culture change within enterprises within a deprived regional socio-economic environment. First, the paper identifies key policy drivers for interventions around mental health and employment, summarizes evidence review findings and describes the range of activities within three projects. The role of the 'business champion' emerged as crucial to these interventions and therefore, secondly, the paper examines how champions' potential to make a difference depends on the work settings and their existing roles, skills and motivation. In particular, champions can proactively coordinate project strands, embed the project, encourage participation, raise awareness, encourage changes to work procedures and strengthen networks and partnerships. The paper explores how these processes can facilitate changes in organizational culture. Challenges of implementation are identified, including achieving leverage with senior management, handover of ownership to fellow employees, assessing impact and sustainability. Finally, implications for policy and practice are discussed, and conclusions drawn concerning the roles of champions within different workplace environments. / This work was supported as part of the evaluation of the Altogether Better programme, which is funded through the UK BIG Lottery fund and aims to empower people across the Yorkshire and Humber region of the UK to lead healthier lives.

Yes / Labour productivity is a key concept for understanding the way modern economies use resources and features prominently in ecological economics. Ecological economists have questioned the desirability of labour productivity growth on both environmental and social grounds. In this paper we aim to contribute to ongoing debates by focusing on the link between labour productivity and worker wellbeing. First, we review the evidence for the happy-productive worker thesis, which suggests labour productivity could be improved by increasing worker wellbeing. Second, we review the evidence on ways that productivity growth may undermine worker wellbeing. We find there is experimental evidence demonstrating a causal effect of worker wellbeing on productivity, but that the relationship can also sometimes involve resource-intensive mediators. Taken together with the evidence of a negative impact on worker wellbeing from productivity growth, we conclude that a relentless pursuit of productivity growth is potentially counterproductive, not only in terms of worker wellbeing, but even in terms of long-term productivity. / UK Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) in particular through grant no: ES/M010163/1 which supports the Centre for the Under-standing of Sustainable Prosperity and ES/S015124/1 which supported the project “Powering Productivity”.

No / The Anthropology of Mental Health Interest Group affirms that the state of mental health in Academic Anthropology needs serious attention and transformation. We respond to structural inequities in academia that exacerbate mental distress among graduate students and other anthropologists who experience oppression, by putting forward a policy statement with recommendations to create more equitable learning and working environments.

No / Wellbeing is a growing concern for educators and students alike and is especially significant in the light of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has brought the importance of wellbeing into sharp focus. Elsewhere, the authors (Cobb and Croucher) have written about a new pedagogic approach they have developed, specifically related to archaeology, although applicable across higher education. In this approach, they draw on relational theories and archaeology's “material turn” to focus on “Inclusive Learning Assemblages”. They explore the material and social assemblages that students encounter, both in different learning contexts and outwith learning, arguing that if we foreground learning assemblages, then student diversity and the student learning experience will be enhanced. In this paper, the authors take a step further by exploring the value of this approach for student wellbeing. They argue that taking an assemblage approach to teaching and learning in archaeology, and foregrounding diversity, actively improves student wellbeing too. This paper brings into dialogue mental health issues, with the diversity of student experiences, and the broad material engagements of an archaeology degree, in order to suggest a series of concrete steps that practitioners can implement to enhance student wellbeing.

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