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Image Credit: rox sm | Flickr
Architecture surrounds occupants, it engages them, and it guides them. A well designed work can make an experience brighter, livelier, happier, and more meaningful. So, why are so many buildings today designed at the status quo, where they are there to meet the bare essentials? Perhaps it is because many architects today do not think in terms of holistic design thinking.
You see, holistic design is a work that considers all of the senses. It is a place where aspects like attention, focus, learning, and memory have been addressed. Holistically designed places can be soothing, comfortable, inspirational, and even beautiful.
The main idea is to not get rid of Read more
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Image: jurvetson | Flickr
Lately, many technologies are surfacing that help with the tracking of a person’s physiological signals for health. Such a technology is sleep tracking technology which monitors heart rate, movement, and breathing. So, when a person lies in bed sleeping, data is being collected about the quality of that person’s sleep. (1)
Yet, what can you, as an architect, do with such data to help your occupants? And can architecture be the go-between that pulls from data which tracks health, to emitting environmental stimuli which promotes health? Well, I say the answer to the latter question is yes, and for the answer to the first question: read on.
Just imagine if the two could work together: tracking health and promoting health. With tracking, you would find health problems, and with promoting you would treat and prevent health problems. Thus, to make this work, the tracking device and the architecture would need to communicate.
As the device detects shifts in the Read more
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Seth Godin recently wrote an article on “pre-digital environments” which I encourage you to read here. Now that you have read it, I ask you…how can you as an architect push advancement from this pre-digital age?
While it seems that much of what makes a place digital depends on the technology — I will tell you that is also depends on how the “design of place” works with that technology.
If the technology that makes a place “digital” is designed as an afterthought (not well integrated into the environment) it will likely have detrimental effects. On the other hand, if the technology that makes a place digital harmonizes with the architectural design, mountains can be moved to help occupants.
The linchpin in all of this is sensory design — which can guide the Read more
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Sensory Design Research Paper by Maria Lorena Lehman Published in Intelligent Buildings International
Today, I am eager to announce that my latest research paper has just been published in the peer-review research journal, Intelligent Buildings International.
The paper, entitled How Sensory Design Brings Value to Buildings and their Occupants by Maria Lorena Lehman, delves into why sensory design has such potential to Read more
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A New Dawn For Healthcare Architecture
Maria Lorena Lehman
Featured in Building Tomorrow Magazine
I am pleased to inform you that a commentary which I wrote, entitled A New Dawn for Healthcare Architecture, was recently published in the fall edition of Building Tomorrow magazine.
You can access the full feature article by clicking on the following link:
A New Dawn for Healthcare Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman
In essence, this published piece focuses on the power of healthcare architecture and innovation, and how they can work together with sensory design to improve healing time and quality for patients, which is much needed today.
Here is an introductory excerpt:
“Healthcare architecture and innovative design plays a critical role when it comes to the quality of treatment and care for patients and the medical teams who support them. Maximized to its full potential, architecture has the ability to ease painful suffering, guide patients toward faster and better quality healing, and solve healthcare challenges which often detrimentally affect patients….”
— Maria Lorena Lehman, Founder Sensing Architecture
Building Tomorrow Magazine
Again, if you would like to read more of the article as it was published in Building Tomorrow, please click on the following link which will take you directly to the online version of the full article.
A New Dawn for Healthcare Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman
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 and Facebook followers by clicking on the “re-tweet” and “like” button at the beginning of this page.
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Name: Sensory Design by Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka
URL: Sensory Design
Purpose: to explain in-depth and clearly how humans interact and perceive architectural design
THIS BOOK IS MUCH NEEDED IN OUR DISCIPLINE
Sensory Design is a book to really make you, as an architect, more aware of how your designs impact people. Taking and in-depth look at how humans perceive space and built form, Sensory Design is really quite a remarkable publication.
Written by Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka, every page is filled with insight that will help you to become a better designer. Their unique way of presenting diagrams, illustrations and photographs really help to make an otherwise complex topic easy to understand.
Many of you, my readers, email me looking for a good resource on the topic of human perception and architectural design. Very often, I find myself recommending this book. In fact, there are very few books that seriously delve into the topic of sensory perception and design in such a detailed fashion. It brings modern day practice together with historical trends and then it ties theories together with findings about the brain to really help designers understand why certain design decision might work and why some might not.
Again, Sensory Design is a great find as it is much needed in the architectural discipline.
WRITTEN FOR A DESIGNER — ABOUT THE HUMAN PERCEPTUAL PROCESS
As you’ve probably heard me say before, the topic which this book covers is very important for architects and other designers to understand. Plus, I like that the authors go an extra step further by explaining human perception from a designer’s stand-point.
I think it best to show you what I’m talking about. Here is an excerpt that I particularly like: Read more
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Image: patrick george | Flickr
“Architecture is basically a container of something. I hope they will enjoy not so much the teacup, but the tea.”
– Yoshio Taniguchi
This quote highlights why sensory design is indispensable. The act of enjoying the tea is fostered by the teacup just as sensory architecture enhances occupant experience. Both the teacup and sensory design must be sensitive to human needs.
With interactive design, a sensory teacup could integrate user sensory system factors like temperature and flavor. The same sensory teacup could also adapt itself to the particular tastes of each individual drinker. The sensory teacup could even adapt itself in real-time as its tea level decreases. And yes, the tea cup could even use technology to make the tea more physiologically healthy. In the end, this tea cup still exists to Read more
