Exploring the Psychology of Space: How Design Shapes Our Emotional and Physical Well-being
How do the spaces we inhabit shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions? From ancient Egyptian healing temples to modern neuroscience, the relationship between our environment and well-being has been a subject of fascination and study.
Our surroundings, whether the height of a ceiling, the flow of a room, or the balance of its elements, affect us in ways both visible and invisible. Today, advancements in technology and psychology allow us to uncover the science behind these effects, revealing how design can enhance creativity, comfort, and even health. This exploration invites us to consider how intentional design transforms not just spaces but the way we experience the world.
In the spring of 2019, Google partnered with the Johns Hopkins University International Arts + Mind Lab during Milan Design Week to look at how our surroundings affect us on a biological level. During the exhibit, “A Space for Being,” visitors were asked to put away their phones, refrain from talking, and explore three different rooms for five minutes each. Guests wore a special armband that measured their biometric data, including heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature conductivity, and movement. For example, the “Transformative” room, meant to induce calm, featured a woody scent, natural materials, diffuse lighting, wood artwork, and the sounds of piano and strings.
At the end of the exhibit, visitors received a personalized data visualization based on their biofeedback to help them understand which rooms and design characteristics made them feel most at ease. Suchi Reddy, the architect behind the exhibit, says her guiding design principle is that “form follows feeling.” This is a notable departure from the “form follows function” ethos that dominated the 20th century when densely packed cities of iron and steel sprang up to accommodate a growing urban population.
“Some of these environmental influences we cannot see or touch, yet they have a direct influence on our behaviour or mood,”
says Irving Weiner, an environmental psychology professor at Massasoit Community College in Middleborough.
The idea that architecture and its interior spaces have a profound impact on humans, including our physical and mental state and well-being, is not new. In fact, it goes back thousands of years. Feng Shui, the ancient Chinese art of geomancy to harmonize individuals with their surrounding environment, goes back more than 3,000 years, and the Egyptian Healing Temples, where rooms were constructed to disseminate the colour spectrum and colour healing with sunlight shining through coloured gemstones, perhaps go back as far as 6,000 years.
Increasingly, neuroscientists and psychologists are teaming up with architects and designers to examine the impact of various architectural space formats and proportions on our health and behaviour. With scientific advancements in technology and neuroimaging, we are now finally starting to understand how exactly this affects us and even how various architectural structures and spaces can impact different types of thinking and influence behaviour.
In an experiment conducted by Joan Meyers-Levy, professor emeritus in marketing from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, the relationship between ceiling heights and thinking styles was examined. Levy learned that low-ceiling rooms favoured those whose need was to focus on the details of a subject or object. By contrast, lofty ceilings were conducive to more abstract styles of thinking, brainstorming, creative solutions, and zooming out to see the panoramic perspective.
The more these studies confirm the significant degree to which design affects the brain, the more the industry is awakening to the need to develop new design tools, teachings, and methods that will be conducive to understanding and applying the building environment in healthier and more constructive ways.
The New School of Architecture and Design in San Diego, led by Professor David Alan Kopec, is one of those at the forefront of studying and teaching human relations and behaviours within the context of the built and natural environments. How our brains react to the geometry of the interior spaces we occupy, for example, cannot be overstated.
Gestalt Psychology, named after a very influential school of visual perception in Germany in the 1920s, follows the idea that our brains are wired to create order from chaos and are constantly looking for ways to frame everything, even visually. In simple terms, it wants to line things up. It wants to see the logical order of a room flowing to the next, and within the room itself, the corner of the couch lined up, for example, with the occasional chair on the other side of the coffee table. Alan Lightman, in his book The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew, states:
“I would claim that symmetry represents order, and we crave order in this strange universe we live in. One only needs to think about the petals of a flower, the wings of a butterfly, or even the symmetry in our outer body appearances to begin to understand the impact nature has on how we think visually. The architecture of our brains was born from the same trial and error that happens in a flower, jellyfish, and Higgs particles.”
Symmetrical objects and images fit neatly into the patterns that our brains recognize as familiar.
Johan Wageman, an experimental psychologist from Belgium who specializes in visual perception and how our brains constantly organize incoming flows of information, echoes this thinking. He holds that symmetry is one of those major principles driving the self-organization of the brain.
On the other hand, we also easily bore from symmetry overload. Johan Wageman found that although our brains favour the order of symmetry, they are not necessarily more beautiful. This is where the Japanese concept of Fukinsei,
i.e., The concept of creating balance in the composition or “counterweight” of dissimilar objects, comes into play.
This has equal bearing on art and its arrangement on a wall as it does in the way we lay out rooms within a building or the furniture within the rooms.
In conclusion, the spaces we occupy profoundly influence our thoughts, emotions, and behaviours. From symmetry to sensory engagement, every design choice shapes our well-being and experience. By leveraging insights from psychology and neuroscience, we can create environments that not only meet functional needs but also inspire joy, creativity, and comfort. Thoughtful design is more than aesthetics, it’s a pathway to enhancing how we live, work, and connect with the world around us.
In the following articles, we explore the topic:
We invite you to explore the next article from this exploration series.
Information Reference Index:
Psychology of Space: How Interior Design Impacts Our Mood and Behaviour
Designing for Behaviour
Architecture and Comfort
The Accidental Universe: The World You Thought You Knew
A Century of Gestalt Psychology in Visual Perception
The Psychology of Space: How Interior Design Influences Behaviour and Productivity
Neuroarchitecture: Designing Spaces with Our Brain in Mind
The Science of Design: How Neuroscience Can Help Architects Shape the Built Environment
Neuroscience and Architecture: Designing for the Human Experience
Psychology of Space: How Interiors Impact Our Behaviour
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