Project 2 — Research Assemblage
My design for both my components and the assembly revolved around my research on environmental psychology: how physical aspects of an environment would have a psychological impact on its inhabitants.
Some of my findings were that:
The way spaces are aggregated and arranged imposes restrictions on the inhabitants’ behaviors. Individuals experience a healthy sense of control in an environment that allows the choice between interaction and isolation rather than imposing both experiences arbitrarily. The lack of segregation between private and public spaces can be linked with crowding which has the psychological affect of arousal and stress.
Küller, Ballal, Laike, Mikellides, and Tonello found the effects of light in the workplace had a noteworthy impact on the attitude and performance of individuals working. When the workers perceived the lighting level as insufficient or excessive, their moods declined, but when the lighting was adjusted and perceived as ‘just right’, their moods, and work achievement reached the exceptional levels. Another experiment focused on how the color of interior walls impacts imagination and cognition was published by Science magazine. The psychologists at the University of British Columbia recruited 600 undergraduate students, and asked them to complete cognitive and imaginative tests displayed in a room with red, blue or white colored walls. The results were remarkable. When the tests were taken in the red room — people were surrounded by walls that match the color of a stop sign, a red traffic light, or a hot fire — their performance was outstanding in tasks that require attention to detail and precision, these tasks included finding spelling errors or remembering randomly arranged sets of numbers. The scientists appointed this to the fact that people naturally associate the color red with danger; this increases their adrenaline and leaves them more alert.
The color blue, promised a completely unique group of psychological benefits. When taking tests in the ‘blue room’ people showed decreased short-term memory skills, however, their imaginative capabilities improved dramatically. They were better at finding the next interval in a visual sequence or inventing creative ways to use a brick.
The blue room generated double the amount of “creative outputs” compared to the red room. It is shocking that the color of a wall had such a huge influence on people’s imaginative power. The scientists explained that the color blue is associated with the sky and ocean. It triggers thoughts of vastness, expansive horizons and dispersed light. Thoughts of lazy summer days lounging on summer beaches flood our minds resulting in a state of mental relaxation, making it easy for one to daydream and allow their creative juices to flow freely. The color blue generates thoughts of tangential associations; we free ourselves from the reality that is in front of us and focus on the simmering possibilities lurking deep within our imagination.
Joan Meyers-Levy, a psychologist at the Carlson School of Management, lead an experiment which examined the connection between ceiling height and intellectual mode. She established that people are much quicker at solving anagrams involving confinement, such as “bound,” “restrained” and “restricted” while in a low-ceilinged room. Contrastingly, people in high-ceilinged rooms are better poised to solve puzzles which have a solution associated with freedom, such as “liberated” and “unlimited.” Levy explained that this is a result of how airy spaces allow us to feel free. Additionally, Levy discovered that lofty ceilings enable people to exercise abstract thinking styles. Higher ceilings liberate people from focusing on the particular, while aiding them to zoom out, get creative and make connections. This is the distinction between “item-specific” against “relational” processing it is also why Pratt studios allow students to get creative. At times we need to concentrate on the specifics of a singular object, in which case any claustrophobic space would be ideal. On the contrary, when we are in need of creativity, expansive spaces are much more beneficial, especially one with blue walls.
And so when designing for this assignment I kept that in mind. I created a study carol and work table that would enable creativity and another that would enable alertness. Furniture that would enable creativity facilitate for it using the research previously stated also using curvature to add comfort while the furniture that would enable alertness was angled and enclosed to enable focus. They would be made in the colors that would correspond to them, red for alertness and blue for creativity.
Also the way the book stacks serve as a staircase next to the display case forces the user to slow down when navigating around them, allowing them to better experience and observe the display.
