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 function in hopes of amplifying aesthetics. No. The main strategy is instead, to further unify function with aesthetics — where each is designed consciously from the perspective of all the senses. In doing this, an architectural design will be richer and more universal, being able to meet the needs of both the individual and the collective.

So, I invite you to think in terms of a holistic design perspective. Understand that this is the true language of how humans perceive, and that is the language which you should use to best communicate with your building occupants. After all, that is how you will make a positive difference in their life, by designing to meet their needs in a way that contributes proactively to the very aspects of life they wish to experience.

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© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

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 health algorythms of an occupant, the architecture could pull from this data to release just-in-time environmental stimuli to cater to the particular occupant need.

For example, a sleep monitoring device might detect an occupant tossing and turning in bed while trying to sleep at night. If the architecture could pull from that data (communicating with the device), sensory design could really help the architecture to interactively emit stimuli to prevent further sleep disturbances. Some architectural aspects which could be tailored might include the adjustment of temperature, lighting, sound, and even scent.

So I now ask you to think about how your architecture could be improved if it could communicate with a device within it. What would that communication need to be like in order to make for a successful architectural design response? And how would your architecture be better as a result of that communication?

(1) Simonite, Tom. Sleep Sensor Hides Beneath the Mattress. Technology Review. November 9, 2011.

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.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

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 integration of technology with the environment for better occupant living. Sensory design is what can help to ensure that our transition from the pre-digital is humane.

In terms of hospital care, I agree with Seth Godin that the pre-digital can be “wasteful and dangerous” (as can be seen in many other building types as well). That is why the combination of sensory design with new architectural technologies is critical — to make sure that on our way to digital environments, we don’t create unneccessary chaos, noise, and disturbance. In this light, we’d just be trading one set of problems for new ones.

So, keep sensory design at the forefront as you make way for the digital in environments. In this way, environments will be safer, happier, more effective, and more efficient because you will have harnessed what sensory design and technology can do together.

Bring on the digital, but integrate with sensory design.

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.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

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 make a positive difference in the way we live within architectural spaces. Furthermore, the research paper discusses specific ways that value can be obtained from a sensory design approach, particularly as emerging technologies continue to develop.

To learn more about how you can get access to this sensory design research paper, please click on the following link.

Click here for the Sensory Design Paper 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.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

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.

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

Name: Sensory Design by Joy Monice Malnar and Frank Vodvarka

URL: Sensory Design (affiliate link)

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:

“He maintains that a connection exists between individual distance (the normal spacing of humans) and personal space, which may be thought of “as a portable territory, since the individual carries it with him wherever he goes, although it disappears unders certain conditions, such as crowding. It is the sort of space that W.H. Auden refers to in his “Prologue: The Birth of Architecture”:

Some thirty inches from my nose
The frontier of my Person goes…

This raises the question of just how far our ”frontiers” actually do go, and the degree to which each sense is responsible for understanding distance. Golledge and Stimson point out that because the real world is complex, sending out millions of information signals, we can only be aware of a small portion of them. This information is experienced and recorded as differentials of color, heat, motion, sound, pressure, direction, and whatever else is present and within the range of the senses. Because we record only those stimuli that have a bearing on our particular needs, perceptions may differ.” (Sensory Design, pages 150-152)

As you can see, this book makes it easy for you because the authors have collected very significant and relevant information about what qualities make a space and how those qualities may be interpreted by your occupants. Additionally, Sensory Design includes both broad and detailed explanations which are extremely useful as you work making numerous design decisions at a time.

BECOME A BETTER ARCHITECTURAL DESIGNER

Sensory Design is filled with many different formats to help you learn. The authors have really done their research and will provide you with concrete examples of the different theories about the intersection between the human senses and architectural design compositions.

Plus, history is a part of it too. Not only do Malnar and Vodvarka incorporate the latest findings about the human senses, but they also make links and connections so you can understand how and why certain architectural design techniques stick and others don’t.

There are many nuggets of wisdom in this book — true gems.

I have seen other books that claim to link architectural design to how humans perceive and none that I have seen so far come close to this one. If I had to recommend one comprehensive book on this subject to get you started and that I think would help to make you a better designer, then this is it.

I am sure that you will pick this 356 page book up again and again. I know I do.

Here is the book link: Sensory Design (affiliate link)

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman

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 enhance the experience of drinking that tea.

As architects that design for the senses, it helps to understand latest findings in other fields such as the field of neuroscience — where much is being uncovered about how the human brain and central nervous system work. As we tap into the inner workings behind the senses, emotion and physiology, we will be better able to create spaces that comfort, motivate, teach, remind and enhance experience. (This becomes evermore important as new technologies and materials surface.)

The question then becomes — Can we, as architects, enhance experience without losing sight of what makes that experience so special in the first place?

© 2008-2011 Sensing Architecture by Maria Lorena Lehman