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Archinect's 2023 (100% anonymous) Mental Health Survey

2023-09-27T08:08:00-04:00

It's been a little over three years since we last surveyed the architecture community about our collective mental health. In preparation for World Mental Health Day on October 10, the Archinect team seeks to check in with our audience and learn more about how our community is doing. For this special news article, we're reaching out and asking our readers to share their input and comment on how the last several years have impacted issues on mental health.

We've discussed mental health and workplace issues extensively in the past, and as we slowly reach the last quarter of 2023, we want to check the pulse of our community. Our survey asks questions that aim to help our team learn more about how architects, design professionals, students, and educators have handled and are handling the stressors related to the architecture industry.

Previously on Archinect: Mental Health in Architecture (October 2022)

Our overall goal is to use the information gathered to help guide and inform upcoming...

Mental Health in Architecture

2022-10-10T16:28:00-04:00

Burnout. Fatigue. Anxiety. Mental health. These words have become integrated into the everyday lives of architects, especially since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, looming economic crises, and socio-political injustices taking place globally the state of mental health among individuals has suffered greatly.

Mental health impacts people in many different ways. While discussions of well-being have become more common among family and friends, workplaces and schools have made it a point to address the issues and struggles employees, teams, students, and faculty face.

It's clear that everyone isn't always "okay" and that the increased awareness of mental health support and resources has grown, for the better. While October 10 is recognized as World Mental Health Day, its observance shouldn't be restricted to a single moment.

In 2020, it was important for the Archinect te...

As burnout soars during the pandemic, one expert offers advice

2022-02-02T13:41:00-05:00

Architects are no strangers to burnout. In recent years, our editorial has explored the genesis of burnout in architectural circles by examining the impact of college studio culture as well as burnout and fatigue in the professional architectural workplace.

While burnout existed long before the COVID-19 pandemic, there is evidence that the upheaval of the past two years has further exacerbated an already fragile mental health landscape in the profession. In 2020, an Archinect survey of our community found that 43% of respondents were suffering from new mental health issues that they had not experienced before the pandemic, particularly anxiety, depression, and ADD.

Findings from Archinect’s COVID-19 Mental Health Survey

Heightened anxiety in the workplace is a common symptom of burnout, according to neuroscientist and author Dean Burnett. In his new piece for the BBC’s Science Focus magazine, Burnett explores the onset of burnout during the pandemic, with similar findings to thos...

New study reveals that pandemic-related absences cost employers nearly $1 billion per week

2022-01-13T14:52:00-05:00

In the last 22 months, workers' pandemic-related absences have cost employers more than $78.4 billion — nearly $1 billion each week — according to a Dec. 20 analysis from the Integrated Benefits Institute.

The Integrated Benefits Institute used data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics along with its own dataset to analyze disability wage payments, state disability insurance, sick leave wages, and employee benefits for its calculation. The states of California, Texas, New York, along with the metropolitan areas of New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago exhibited the highest lost work time.

Construction Dive notes that many costs due to the pandemic lie in more intangible areas that aren’t as easy to track. This includes productivity issues due to increased levels of stress, which can take away time spent on work. One suggestion made is for employers to emphasize and implement preventative mental health care in order to assist individuals before conditions become severe.

Archinect's COVID-19 and Mental health survey

2020-05-29T13:47:00-04:00

With the COVID-19 quarantine period entering its third month in the United States, Archinect is seeking input from the design community regarding how the crisis has impacted issues of mental health.

Archinect has covered mental and workplace health issues extensively in the past and would like to see how this focus can incorporate the new pressures and changes brought on by the pandemic.

The survey below asks questions that attempt to grasp how the Archinect community is handling the crisis with the goal of using information gathered to guide and inform forthcoming editorial initiatives.

The responses collected may be shared in some of these new initiatives, though all names, contact, and identifying information will be kept confidentially.

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When work keeps you up at night, what do you do?

2020-02-24T18:58:00-05:00

Losing sleep can be a drag. Especially, since we know sleep deprivation drastically impacts the cognitive functions so crucial to work in architecture. Things like judgment, critical thinking, problem solving, planning, and organization, are but a few of the influenced aspects of our mental health, writes Rebecca Zucker in her Harvard Business Review essay entitled How to Stop Thinking About Work at 3am. In the piece, Zucker offers some strategies to combat one of the causes of sleep deprivation — thinking about work when we should be sleeping. Here are 3 of her pointers:

Make a to-do list: According to research by Baylor University and Emory University, makings a to-do list for the following day helps us fall asleep faster, writes Zucker. Many times, our preoccupations with work at home are due to uncompleted tasks. Writing them down acknowledges them, putting them out of the mind.
Engage in physical activity: Exercise and overall physical fitness help in our mental performance. Whe...

Managing back-to-school stress

2019-09-06T16:15:00-04:00

With the back-to-school bustle underway for the fall, many students have hit the ground running. As the work load begins to pile up and studio projects commence, anxiety and stress also sneak their way into the forefront. How can the architecture student tackle this intrusion?

Nicole LeBlanc, MA. and Luana Marques, Ph.D. have some insights. In their Harvard Health article, the pair delineate the current research concerning anxiety in college. Some findings are:

It's quite common. A 2018 study conducted by the American College Health Association showed that "63% of college students in the U.S. felt overwhelming anxiety in the past year." The study also found that 23% of students "reported being diagnosed or treated by a mental health professional for anxiety in the past year." LeBlanc and Marques highlight the fact that the bulk of anxiety amongst students tends to be during the initial transition into college. For the design student, first year does indeed prove to be a formidable a...

Can work stress be reduced with adaptive rooms? UNStudio is looking into it

2017-02-14T14:08:00-05:00

Part inhabitable mood ring, part psychological experiment, the exhibition "Work 3.0 – A Joyful Sense at Work" from UNStudio and SCAPE is an attempt to create spaces that make work stress more bearable by testing out adaptable environments in the form of a "fully immersive, modular structure."

This immersive structure, known as a RESET pod, will be on display at the iSalone deal Mobile in Milan from April 4th through 9th, and incorporates input from a neuroscientist, an ambient intelligence technology integrator, and a technologist/interaction designer. The feedback from visitors to the exhibition will help the designers determine what spaces do and don't work for office worker stress mitigation.

Here's the text of the full press release from UNStudio:

Can a space adapt to your stress levels? UNStudio and SCAPE join forces with a multidisciplinary team of experts to tackle stress in the workplace.

UNStudio and SCAPE have joined forces with a multidisciplinary team of experts for the ex...

Bartlett Director Bob Sheil discusses mental health in architecture education

2016-10-12T19:30:00-04:00

It’s an issue that oscillates according to many factors, mainly debt, but also the competitiveness of and between students and likewise of and between staff. We monitor it very carefully and are continuously seeking to improve our approach, extend support, and address the culture that surrounds the issue. We welcome this discussion which also needs to spotlight overworking, a culture of competition and production that is too intense, and an unhealthy disregard for rest and repose.

Learn more about what's happening at The Bartlett under Bob Sheil in our Deans List.

Related on Archinect:

As hammers clang and views vanish

2015-10-03T11:03:00-04:00

residents are taking aim at the disruption caused by construction, the uprooting of cherished institutions, the buildings’ designs and the ever-higher prices attached to the housing that they fear will alter neighborhoods fundamentally.

C. J. Hughes examines how some NYC residents are reacting to an ongoing boom in construction, enabled/exemplified by the rezoning of 37 percent of the city under the Bloomberg administration. From filing noise complaints, pushing for height moratoriums, to fighting against the loss of public space and/or services.