Architectural Impact of Public Library on Users’ Mental Health

This paper examines the architectural effect of Public libraries’ areas on users’ mental health. This study also in- troduces appropriate criteria and patterns, to recognize environmental stimuli in life space and their effects on human beings and to identify and evaluate environmental indexes. Present research study was conducted in all depended public libraries in Tehran (Capital city) of Public Libraries’ institution of Iran. A 41-item checklist is de- signed by the research, which provides standards, criteria and patterns for indoor and outdoor space of public libraries. This study carried out via descriptive-survey method and two types of quaternaries were used as as- sessment tools including General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and researcher-made questionnaire based on archi- tectural theories. The results show that dependent variable (architectural space of public libraries) is effective on independent variable (users’ mental health). This study confirms that a significant relationship exists between ar- chitectural elements of public libraries and users’ mental health.

Keywords Public Library; Architectural Spaces; Mental Health; Environmental Psychology.