Image Credit: jan.tito | Flickr

Within architecture, there are many places where occupant choice surfaces. Every time an occupant makes a decision on where to go, what to focus on, or what to feel — they are interacting with your architecture, and making decisions based off of it. So, why is occupant choice so important?

Choice is everywhere. And for you as an architect, it is your job to distill those choices within your environments for your occupants. By making their choices clear, and meaningful, their experiences will be that much richer.

The key is also to align the architectural design choices which you provide for occupants with their needs in time. So, from moment to moment, your occupants are thinking, feeling, and doing in response to your architecture — thus, the choices which your buildings provide must be clear, meaningful, and inspired.

As your occupants “choose” while taking a journey through your designed built space, keep in mind that it is as though they are reading an interactive story, where they decide where to go (within the confines of the environment you have designed). So, should you think of yourself as an architect that is an interactive storyteller?

Perhaps yes, because this might be a way to get you to better understand your occupant’s narrative, including what they need, when they need it, and why. The main idea is to help your occupants reach their goals — and a significant contribution to help them do that is to provide the right guidance through your architectural work: in other words, the right choices.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image Credit: Wolfgang Staudt | Flickr

A recent study was done, mentioned in The Economist article entitled Pricing and the Brain: Hitting the Spot, where actual changes within the brain occur that substantiate this: If told something is more valuable, then a person actually enjoys it more. As the article explains, there may be something to this involving expectation. So how does this relate to architectural design?

Well, what if upon entering a building, someone told you that it was designed by a very famous and prestigious architect? Do you think you would enjoy your experience within that building more than if you didn’t know this fact? Perhaps you would pay more attention to the building, its details, and engage with it more than if you had never known about its renowned creator. Would you take extra time while within the building to savor it? My guess is that the average person probably would.

But the implication of this notion of heightened perceived value affecting architectural enjoyment doesn’t end there.

What about the exterior of your building? Do you think this might have an effect upon how well-received and enjoyable your architecture is for occupants? Just as when proper marketing can boost product enjoyment, as explained in The Economist article, perhaps the way you “guide” your occupants into your building plays a role in their enjoyment of it once inside.

Within this way of thinking, your building exterior becomes ever more important as it sets the stage — and your occupants’ expectations about their impending experience. An exterior that is well designed will automatically send triggers to your occupant which let them know that what awaits them on the inside will be of equal or higher value for them. And since you would be setting this high expectation, it is important to get the design of the interior right — so as to not fall short of reaching their expectations.

So, the important thing for you to remember here is that you are always setting or meeting expectations for your occupants as they travel about your building. You’re setting them up for value, and your goal is to reach that value for them with your design. Thus, as you design, you should always think about what you are showing your occupants about the perceived value of your building. And I’m not talking just about the actual cost of the building, but also the design attention given to details that indicate it is a building design of high quality: a one-of-a-kind and valuable architectural experience.

Additionally, your clients will like this way of thinking as well, since they often want to promote some sort of experiential enjoyment within their buildings. The key is to understand how to design your work so that it communicates value to occupants early-on in their experience. This will help to ensure that their experience will be one of enjoyment, if their expectations are met by your design.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: ragnar1984 | Flickr

Buildings often rely upon wayfinding design to give their occupants a sense of building orientation, and to perhaps spark that mental map that tells them where they have been as well as pointing them in the direction of where they need to go. And while wayfinding signage and other directional elements found within buildings can be helpful, I do think that a good architectural design should not be dependent upon such signage. That is, the design should inherently convey to its occupants a sense of where they are when within it, and a sense of direction subtly instructing them on how to get to where they want to go.

For instance, an implied axial alignment of a well-positioned window which lets in a certain quality of light can pull an occupant in that direction if they sense it from another room. Another example is one of an exterior building element which wraps around the corner of a building in a way that pulls pedestrians toward the entrance as they are subtly cued to turn the corner.

Thus, within your designs there are ways to gently pull your occupants through, as they experience a harmonization of building orientation elements, where one leads to the next. And as such, designed building elements (as opposed to wayfinding signage) can be used as milestones to be experienced along your occupants’ journey. Additionally, such architectural milestones serve to not only pull your occupants through your building, but to also create a mental map created in your occupants’ minds about the experience of your building as it will be stored within their memory.

In designs where it is important for an occupant to get from point A to point B, without getting lost and within the shortest time frame — such mental maps and experiential architectural milestones should be considered. As such, there are times were it is just simply not enough to only use color or material texture to imply a change in location within a building. For instance, this may not work well for your occupants, as can be seen within many hospitals or office buildings today, where corridors and rooms become redundant and repetitive in their layout and are only distinguished based on color change throughout the design.

To help with a more memorable and intuitively easy to navigate building design, think about the milestones that your occupant will experience along their journey when within your building. Use wayfinding signage as needed, but as an architect do not become overly dependent in your reliance upon such signage because you will be missing out on great opportunities with which to engage your occupants by taking them on a unique and memorable journey that “fits” your building, its occupants, and its intended functions.

Think of building orientation as a design challenge — where its solution can lead to more comprehensive, customized and intuitive building designs.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: seier+seier | Flickr

As architects, we often try to design and think of buildings as vessels which engage with their occupants on many levels — including the emotional ones. And of course, those designs which connect with their occupants on emotional levels, are the designs that often have the most profound effect. Yet frequently, designers use their “instincts” to orchestrate novel and harmonious building design features that will serve to not only inspire, but also to connect with people in profound ways.

But what if you want to use more than your instinct? What if you could get insight into how to tap into your occupant’s emotions? …knowing not just where to do it within your designs, but also when.

As I see new technologies surface, like the Emotiv headset, I think we all must ask ourselves as designers not simply whether design can stir emotions, but more specifically which design arrangements elicit which emotional responses — and what do these emotional responses mean for those that experience them. Well, with advances like the Emotiv headset which can record emotions as they are being perceived from given stimuli, we are now able to get insight into the links between the emotions and the designed stimuli that triggers them.

From Emotional Response to Engaged Behavior

In the video (at the end of this article) you will see how a technology can “read” emotional human response to design stimuli — as you will see below, the stimuli takes the form of a movie trailer which will elicit the emotions of happiness, sadness, anger and fear from the viewer. And while some of what this new technology shows is rather obvious, as when certain sad parts of the movie trailer elicit sadness in the observer, there is no doubt that as a designer we can benefit from the nuances that such technological breakthroughs exhibit, like the ability to dissect design in terms of human response — yes, the elusive emotional ones.

Image: i could sleep through a world war | Flickr

Now, with this information in hand, just imagine that you are designing a building environment with a large central focus on occupant emotional response. How might you think about designing your building differently? If designing a hospital, how might you alleviate feelings of sadness and fear? If designing a school, how might you engage students to feel happiness or excitement? And is there a certain moment within your built environment where you may want to elicit the emotion of anger? And what if, unknowingly, you to elicit one of these emotions from your occupants unintentionally — of course, this could potentially ruin an effect or the entire experiential journey which you are leading your occupant upon within your building design.

Then, also take into account what results from a combination of architectural emotional cues, for instance, when happiness follows sadness or fear. (This of course, may be determined by what qualities you are trying to achieve with your architecture. Is it to be mysterious? Trustworthy? Comforting? Or joyful?)

I do not think architectural design is a “manipulation” of human emotion through built form. Instead, I believe that architectural design is an instrument which people can experience, with all of their emotions and curiosities. And when a building is designed well, it houses both a feast for the senses as well as restful places within which its occupants can reside. But be sure that your building design does not stop at meeting simple programmatic needs and requirements — be sure that you as a designer are consciously tapping into the right emotions, at the right time, to engage your occupants as you intend.

The following is the video where you can see just how this new technological headset analyzes a viewers real-time emotional reactions as they simply watch a movie trailer. As you watch, think about not only which emotions are being triggered, but begin to think about their proportions (almost like a recipe) — in terms of what might be needed to reach the movie trailers overall targeted outcome:

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: bittbox | Flickr

Who would have thought that a concrete block could be rendered invisible? Well, with the use of augmented reality technologies, just that has been achieved. By allowing sensing technologies which are capable of face-detection to act as an intermediary, the invisible concrete block system is able to tell exactly where an observer’s line of sight is, in relation to the concrete block. With that information, the system projects images of the surroundings that coincide with that observers perspective — making a concrete block render virtually invisible.

I think that such an augmented reality exhibit is quite inspiring to see because it shows how designers can push certain boundaries by combining a unique recipe between technologies, materials and their own creative talents. For instance, just imagine if within your own building design you are able to take a material that has been thought of (and physiologically perceived) in a certain way for a long time, and then create an alternate or unexpected condition by which it can be experienced. This element of “surprise” is one way for you to elicit certain occupant behaviors, memories and learning experiences.

Materials and the many behaviors which they can manifest temporally is a very interesting thing for you as an architect to explore and push. The key is to first understand how those materials are being perceived, have been perceived and how that might need to change in order to convey a certain message through your architecture. For example, the invisible concrete block might serve to create an illusion within a wall or act as an interactive three-dimensional building feature — where its chameleon abilities might be just the thing needed to create a certain lightness, transient ability and ethereal effect for a space at a particular time of day.

In the end, it is most important that you see building materials for what they are at face value, but also to never stop searching for more on what they can become. As a painter paints with paint, architects often “paint” with materials. As you watch the following video, ask yourself just how creative you can be with your materials — even with the most mundane of ones.

To get you thinking, here is the video of the invisible concrete block exhibit and how it works:

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: o palsson | Flickr

Often in architectural design (and as with any business) there is a wide variety of modeling, testing, and planning to ensure that the final project (or product) will make its way into the real world with great success. As architects, I know that there are a wide variety of things we do to help us visualize our built environments for clients — where we pull from our own internal talents and resources, combine them with the latest know-how and efforts of our design team and consultants, and then proceed to get them accepted by all kinds of review boards, committees and so on. But — have you ever done a quality control design test of your building after it’s built? If so, how do you do it? And what do you do with the results?

Do you ever ask yourself — How much testing and surveying do we really do as architects once our building is built? What do we do after it is constructed? Do we merely check in on it in a general manner and use it for marketing opportunities?… Or, do we examine what our design team has created?

I say all of this because I think it is important to have a relationship and connection with your designed buildings after they are built. Wouldn’t it be nice to be a “fly on a wall” so you could get a sneak peak at exactly how your building occupants use your spaces, interact with them, behave within them and so on?

Why Running a Design Test Is so Important, And How You Can Start to Do It

Of course, if something about your building really fails, I am pretty sure you hear about it in no time flat. However, there are ways for you take the time to really observe the nuances to what you have built for your occupants. For instance, it is important to really listen and watch the way the people within your buildings use your designs. You will immediately begin to see the things that work and the things that do not, but even more amazingly your design test observations will lead to realizations and then into insights which I think will enter into your design process and emerge as even more creative solutions during your next architectural project. Thus, a main benefit to studying the nuance to your buildings in use after they are built, is to give you an awareness of your own design decisions and process. In the end, you’ll design better buildings both with greater quality and in less time.

One way, and a very easy way, to start to begin to understand your design (in an almost undercover way) is to talk with people that are inhabiting your buildings, whether they occupy them daily or after their one-time visit, their point of view about their experience can really serve as a wake-up-call to you. They key is to talk with people that you would not normally talk with as the “architect”. Ask somebody in your building that uses a particular feature to execute their work for instance. Ask how they like. Ask a few questions to get them talking and before you know it they could be giving you invaluable information about your design abilities. They may say “you know, I love this about it — but this part is really uncomfortable”.

It is a moment like that, that can turn into a golden opportunity. But with such an insight, yes you do see a problem (and that is unfortunate), but then you have many options to either fix it, take note of it, or even tell the person using it that they are using it wrong or even suggest a workaround. But, your observation does not end there…

Be sure to make a mental note of what they said because this design oversight, conflict or even miscalculation will help you see a constraint which might be holding all of your designs back. And trust me, once you have heard a revelation like this, you as an architect and designer will grow — having what I like to call architectural empathy.

In other words, you will be better able to put yourself into your occupants shoes — yes, helping you to design better projects in the future, but also increasing your relationship with your clients early in the design process.

Thus, I encourage you to think about studying your buildings, not only before the project is built, but well after it has been built. Remember that you should not leave your building completely once it has been “finished”; for, your building will remain standing for a long time and I think there is much that can be learned from it — not only by others, but also by you.

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Torley | Flickr
A Second Life shopping mall design that reflects trends instantly, showing what people buy, current fashions, quality levels and so on.

I wonder if one can say that what you put into your architectural design, your occupants will get out of it? Yet, I do not necessarily think that the amount of time or money spent on a project is linearly reflected in its positive or negative outcome for occupant experience. Yes, it can help…but with the proper design ingenuity and by capitalizing on the right leverage points within your design process, your architectural designs can speak volumes to your occupants no matter how large, small or costly the project.

However — does the level of “immersion” with which you design get carried through into your occupants’ experience of your design? And what makes for good design immersion?

Well, another word for immersion is “absorption”, also defined as “the state of being deeply engaged or involved. In light of this definition, I must say that most often reaching the proper level and state of immersion while you design user experience in a building can work wonders for creating an equally immersive environment for your occupants. For, such an environment will cradle your occupants in such a way as to not only alleviate their functional needs, but to also present them with an architectural world that seamlessly and almost invisibly brings beauty into their lives.

How to Think Immersively When You Design

In today’s day and age, when speaking of an immersive environment, people generally think of virtual reality spaces in terms of another world often filled with things like amazing graphics, avatars and new rules that make up the physics to their new world. However, much can be learned from such virtual reality environments…especially when you bring those lessons back into the daily life of your occupants.

For starters, immersive experiences can occur for your occupants well within your physical, and very real, architectural buildings. I think that in order to do this, however, you as an architect need to truly “immerse” yourself within your environments as you create them. This requires that when you design, you go beyond the programmatic needs of your occupants so you can instill that poetic value within your future building. After all, if you can feel the poetics of a building on your drawing board, the probability of your occupants feeling it once built will be greatly increased.

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Abstract of a color processor inside the human brain.
Makes me wonder about how well we express color.
Image: Frank Bonilla Abstracts.tv | Flickr

How do you, as an architect, get to the bottom of what your occupants really need and want? Do you do this mostly be talking with them? Presenting different architectural design schemes to see which one they like best? Or do you study their behavior to understand what moves them with regard to the things that cannot be expressed by mere words?

I recently came across this quote that I thought might be an interesting place to begin a discussion about environmental psychology for architects:

“Research shows that only 5% of what the average person thinks can be expressed verbally. […] The other 95% is hidden deep within the subconscious.”

– Click here to read the article.

If the above statistic is true, then how do you as a designer wrap your head around the other 95% underlying what your occupants really want? Also, how can you increase the chances of creating a design that will, in fact, work — adding behavioral, emotional and intellectual response to what goes into making an architecture work functionally successful?

Five Techniques to Leverage Your Architectural Design Efforts

The following are five tips to help you, as an architect, incorporate key architectural psychology design principles while you design. These can be great starting points to shift your mindset — and can especially be coupled with your programming efforts:

1. Observe Occupant Behaviors: You can get design insight by observing your occupant’s behaviors, emotions, thought process and so on, by understanding how they react in certain environments similar to the one you are designing. However, don’t be afraid to look at their behavior in other architecture types, as these can give you great insight and some good takeaway ideas.
2. Review Their Photos and Memorabilia: Ask your occupants to bring in photos or other memorabilia to see and experience what they deem important about their past experiences involving a project similar to your new one.
3. Create a Survey and/or Conduct an Interview: Ask your occupants questions that you would otherwise not ask them in a typical architectural design programming session. Be creative here. If you have many occupants that will inhabit your building design, then a survey and interview will help you find out not only individual client and occupant behaviors, but it will help you understand collective behaviors as well. This can be quite important. I challenge you to go beyond the typical line of questioning which usually involves occupant load, circulation, wayfinding preferences and so on. Really delve into what makes your client and occupants “tick”.
4. Learn About Their Struggles: Delve into what troubles your occupants most — medical conditions, daily or lifelong stressors, life changes that they have experienced or will experience and so on. By understanding their personal history, future aspirations and current “state”, you will have a richer understanding as to how to design a building that not only functions for them, but also uplifts them.
5. Have a Brainstorming Session with Them: Break the typical “mold” and brainstorm with your occupant. Make them a part of the process (to whatever extent you feel comfortable). Even if their ideas do not literally translate into elements for your architectural design — you might be surprised that this session could give you some much needed insight about how your design will be received.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

image: Incase Designs | Flickr

Productivity. Collaboration. Mobility. Globalization. Socialization. Culture.

Such are the buzz-words which describe the more modern workplaces of today. But where is this all going? And why?

One thing is for sure, computers are spreading. They seem to be everywhere. They’re getting smaller, more helpful and their interfaces are getting more intuitive. It’s no wonder that the surrounding environments which inhabit them now often allow for more mobility, productivity and collaboration.

But what about creativity? It’s an important factor — and one that should be addressed head-on.

I think that fostering creativity within office cultures is both fundamental, and too often under-emphasized and overlooked. After all, it is creativity that is the glue for so many office cultures today. Just think Google.

Within Google corporate cultures you can see how having a creative work office design literally feeds the Google work culture — ultimately leading to more innovation, better employee satisfaction, retention and outreach.

Here is a quick look around the Google Chicago office so you can get a glimpse of what I’m talking about (before I go on):

You need to design for Work Places that Move

As you can see from the above video, Google offers quite a comprehensive array of amenities for employees (including other facilities like beach volleyball, video games, pool tables and ping-pong which were not shown). In turn, Google’s employer perspective is quite pleased with the effects of providing this “college-like campus” as creativity fuels their innovative spirit (and subsequent products).

Now, on the other end of the spectrum are situations where employees work “remotely”, from a home office, a hotel, a café or even their car.

So where is this all going — and why?

All in all, incredible and rapid development of computers and other ubiquitous technologies are impacting not only how we work but also where we work. As architects, you should pay particular attention to these trends because as employee lifestyles change — so too will the workplace architecture(s) which surround them (wherever those may be).

Expect the blurring of boundaries as things like Twitter, Google Wave and other streaming communication tools abound. Suddenly, what you know about restaurant design can help you design a better office or what you know about office design can help you design a better café. Perhaps what you know about car design will help you design better office “pods” and visa versa.

Further down the road, we may very well see an employee as wearing their “office”. Yes, I’m sure we’re not too far away from seeing some prototypes for that.

So, it may be time to really ask yourself again:

“What yields productivity, collaboration, mobility, globalization, socialization and culture?”

As the “walls” that typically define an office space blur, how will you design them innovatively — or shall I say, in a way that challenges your occupant (employee) to enjoy their work, stay healthy and do a good job.

Odds are, creativity will still be a major design factor.

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I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Image: Miss_Colleen | Flickr

As an architect, you probably spend much of your time designing and preparing for programmatic functions and the aesthetic beauty to be experienced by future building occupants. But, did you know that your design ultimately is “interpreted” into what is frequently called the “mind’s eye”? Simply stated, this is a mental map that is said to be responsible for your own personal view-point and how you perceive the world.

The process behind the mental map is very important for you, as an architect, to understand — or at least be aware of. You see, your occupants accumulate information about places and then visualize this information to help with memory and learning. In effect, such spatial information is collected from all kinds of sources, and such sources influence their mental map — thus, their impression of your architectural design.

Miss Colleen | Flickr

For example, if an image of a building becomes iconic and people see and hear about this image over and over again. This influences their mental map of your architecture. This image will help (or hurt) your architecture’s success in the minds of your occupants.

Just take a look at the “Modern Art” starred area in the History of Art mental map drawing (below). You can see here the personal viewpoint and relationship this person has with modern art — interpreted spatially.

Image: atduskgreg | Flickr

To better design by being aware of the importance of mental mapping, it is best to be conscious of the journey your occupants take arriving to, going through and leaving your building. Focus on what collective order, series and accumulation of stimuli he or she will experience. Furthermore, you should be aware of social, climate, zoning and other cultural stimuli that might affect your occupant’s perception of your work.

In some ways many of you already design for the cognitive mapping process. You, as a designer, use mental maps to visualize and synthesis your own architectural designs. The next step; however, is to work backwards. Think about what you would want remembered or learned about your building.

After all, your building may have a ripple effect — connecting with those far beyond just those that physically visit the space. This is particularly possible now with advancing technologies related to the internet, virtual reality and so on.

Please Tell Me What You Think

I would really like to get your feedback on my post today, so please leave me a comment in the form below. And if you enjoyed it, make sure you share it with your Twitter followers by “tweeting” it using the re-tweet button on this page.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman