When you go into a building - it might be your home, or your office, a shop, restaurant or any other space - how does it enhance your feelings? What is is about its form or location or the objects within it that you like or dislike? What attracts you to want go back, or never go back?
Do this simple test when you are about to enter a building for the very first time:
What do I expect will be in the entrance or foyer? Will it be grand? Overwhelming? Is it attempting to make me feel small and insignificant? Will it be a reflection of a style I loathe? Or will I feel immediately comfortable and maybe even excited being there? Will it help me understand what this place is all about? Will it be a reflection of what I want from a place like this?
The big test is: would I want to live like this?
Endless research projects we have conducted into the impact upon the psyche of the built environment have shown that, over and over again, most people yearn for an upgraded version of their own living environment. They see their own as passé, they do not want a reflection of their current life, they generally want a better one.
It’s as simple as: “Oh I’d really like that in my home!”
We found that when people desired an object or finish or even a feature that they wanted in their home, this was the greatest accolade they could give.
When you look around you in a space or place do you feel as though you belong?
Do you feel happy to be there? Are you comfortable with the lighting, the furniture, the noise levels, the decor? I have spent a bit of time in the new Westpac building in Sydney - it is a masterpiece for visitors and staff. It is comfortable but at the same time rather exotic. Staff are somewhat blasé about their surroundings, but admit it’s a great place to work. However, first time visitors are amazed by the art, the number of beautiful meeting rooms, the outlook (almost every room has a view of Darling Harbour and the ANZAC Bridge). There are over 5,000 people in the building - not counting visitors - and they enjoy levels of comfort I have rarely seen before in an office building. Yet it’s not over-the-top at all.
Winston Churchill said “We shape our buildings; thereafter they shape us.”
The interiors and exteriors of places convey messages. We sense instantly if the vision for the place is mean or grand (not necessarily grand in size).
We sense instantly if the place is true to the vision or just to the bottom-line.
Most of all, the design of places tells us everything about how the owners want to be perceived by the public. All my research has shown that when corners are cut the public somehow senses it and “marks down” the place.
Negative examples of the power of design
Another way of looking at the power of design is to study its negative impact upon the psyche. In his book Architecture of Authority, Richard Ross has shown a huge variety of very disturbing images described as “authority, tyranny...and morality”. They range from pictures of the segregation cells at Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq; the wooden “booking bench” in an LAPD holding centre (a long trestle with 20 or so sets of handcuffs fixed to it); shower stalls at Camp X-Ray and the like. These places issue threats and hideous consequences simply through their design. They were specifically designed to terrify and intimidate.
The double meanings of design
In a recent interview, Richard Ross said “I find it deliciously obvious that an interrogation room at LAPD Parker Center where O.J. Simpson was questioned (in the infamous 1990s murder case) is about the same dimensions as the confessional at a catholic church in Santa Barbara. But then, why not? Both seek to gain a confession for some form of absolution or mitigation of sentence. Both are intimate spaces designed to gain trust and allow secrets to be revealed.”
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