This research explores the potential of architectural design to enhance ‘sustainable academic performance’ by looking beyond the traditional university design strategies, within the context of a future economics university building in the heart of Milan. The city’s unique blend of fast-paced economic and cultural dynamism and slow-paced aperitivo culture makes it a city of temporalities and flexibility. This study critiques the predominant focus in our society on either maximizing performance while disregarding mental health, or enhancing well-being to the point of overlooking productivity, highlighting a gap between the ‘hustle culture’ and the ‘wellness culture’. Supported by numerous research in environmental psychology, it proposes a design framework that integrates both performance-enhancing and well-being enhancing design strategies, aligned with the principles of the Attention Restoration Theory, to create a space that promotes ‘sustainable academic performance’ for both neurotypical and neurodivergent users in the academic context. Through literature review, case studies, surveys, geotagging and analysing everything through the lens of culture, the study proposes the redesign of the Bocconi University Via Roentgen Building, aiming to create a new typology of economics university building that promotes a healthier lifestyle.

This essay explores the relationship between dwelling architecture and mental health, with a particular focus on the housing constructed in Vienna and London between 1840 and 1919, during a period of unprecedented growth that followed the Industrial Revolution. Contemporary building standards guarantee that current dwelling architecture does not have a negative impact on the residents’ health. Moreover, the extensive research conducted in recent years on the relationship between architecture and mental health informs current housing design. However, since these practices are relatively new, understanding the impact of older housing on mental well-being is crucial in determining whether those apartments are still habitable. By examining the historical and architectural contexts of Viennese “Zinshäuser” and London’s Victorian houses, this study identifies key architectural elements present in these buildings, analyzes what caused specific dwelling architecture typologies to form, and explores how they can affect the mental health of their occupants today. To answer this final section, a comparative analysis of Vienna and London is conducted through a questionnaire, revealing disparities in housing conditions and their effects on residents’ mental health.