The Reality of Design

I once had a principal in high school who truly believed he owned the place and everyone in it. He would strut around the hall with his chin up and hands linked behind his back. Not only that, he would be known to come into a classroom at any given time, pull up an empty chair next to a student (or even the teacher), bring one foot up in the chair, lean on his knee, and hover over his subject.  Now you may not have had an experience such as this, but we all have been in a situation where we have become uncomfortable because someone violates our personal space when not invited (like that one person behind you in line). Both of these examples involve '...the study of our use of space and how various differences in that use can make us feel more relaxed or anxious," otherwise known as proxemics (Sheppard, 1996). I will cover personal space and behavior, diversity, and territoriality in relation to proxemics in the following paragraphs. Source Personal space affects

If there is little we can do to control our environment, then do we feel as relaxed and calm as we do when we know there is something we can do to control an event? We typically have control over most things in our private home, but when we make the jump to public spaces sense of control is sometimes lost, and along with it, our comfort. This post will take a look at three different types of the control theory (behavioral, cognitive, and decisional) and discover how design ties into it all.  Source Behavioral control is defined as “…the ability to exert a direct influence or action on the environment” (Pacheco et al., 2013). Have you ever turned your blinds or closed your curtains to create a more private space? This is a way we alter our physical environment to meet our desires. This form of control becomes more difficult when entering a public setting. I have walked into many rooms wishing I could just turn up the heat but being unable to. Instead, I resort to putting on

I don't have some pivotal moment in my life where everything just clicked and I knew what I wanted to do. There is no touching story that brought me to where I am today. My life has been more of piecing together things that I have experienced into a puzzle. Except I don't have all the pieces. Nor do I know what the final product is. I know only the meaning it should reflect, and that I am continually discovering more pieces of the whole. Below I will briefly cover a few parts that I have made sense of. Source "...Given that we spend more than 90% of our life indoors, it is important to understand and act accordingly. Design of buildings...benefit from views and interaction of occupants with their natural environment"(Al horr et al., 2016). Since being outside has such a positive impact on both physical and mental health, then why separate the two so much? I want my designs to be cohesive with nature to promote the well-being of whomever enters the space.