Colegio de Arquitectura y Diseño Interior The Importance of Interior Design Research Assigment: Argumentative Essay Author: Michelle Revelo Arias Code: 00202483 MICHELLE ARIAS López Instructor:REVELO María Gabriela NRC: 2178 Due Date: 8th December, 2021 1 Interior Desing Research Humans spend most of their lives indoors, according to the National Human Activity Patterns Survey (NHAPS) in the United States this figure reaches 90% of people's time. According to science journalist, Emily Anthes, the ecosystem of spaces as a whole, significantly impacts people's lives even in unimaginable ways. Anthes mentions that it has been observed that the design and layout of interior spaces affect many aspects of daily life: mental health, interpersonal relationships, mood and decision making. There is extensive literature on design and academics have even theorized about it, thus design theory suggests that the design of products or spaces induces certain behaviors to those who interact with such designs. (GarcíaArano, 2020) Interior design contemplates different aspects such as: colorimetry, spaces design and distribution, air circulation, among others; these aspects affect population in a sociological, psychological, medical and financial way, so it becomes a matter of interest to create spaces that meet the needs of customers and users and even improve economic returns of companies through the proper use of instruments obtained by prior design research, which is particularly important for this essay. According to the BBC, 67% of businesses in the world fail because they do not have an attractive and functional design, a situation that occurs because there is no adequate research prior to the design of an interior space. The “raison d'être” of companies are their clients and/or users, which in the case of interior design are not the same thing; on the one hand, clients are those who pay monetary values for a design or remodeling service, while users are those who make final use of the spaces. This distinction clarifies the importance of previous research in the development of interior design since this first stage allows designers to know the client's needs, analyze the psychology of the space, identify the relationship of materiality and chromatics even 2 with the level of consumption desired by each business and details the importance of the creation of habitats that generate greater welfare in the population. In economics or finance, information is a fundamental asset that has become the engine of daily business operations which can be palpated in the importanceof big and thick data, similarly, in design it is important to collect as much information from the population, a correct usage of this information will give designers the ability to influence in human beings in the short and medium term, this influence should be in favor of improving the quality of life of people, therefore, it must have a transversal and holistic factor as (Delgado, 2020)mentions. Prior information will make design efficient and inclusive; it will allow designers identify the final user’s behaviors, actions, needs and desires. In Ecuador, for example, there are formally 470.820 people with disabilities registered in the national registry of disability, obtaining this first stage of information regarding the disabled population allows to act optimally in the distribution of spaces, analyzing that in this case places free of obstacles should be provided with enough space to maneuver or circulate safely and freely, the statement is useful and concrete on promulgating public construction parameters, like the requirement to build public corridors not less than 1.2m or 1.5m . All with the objective that the space remains as functional over the years and does not require modifications that involve heavy monetary expenses. Secondly, an element of great interest is psychology of space, which describes how the physical state of a place conditions the user's behavior by manipulating the notion of interior space between the logics of spatial coherence and visual perception. Continuing with the influence of design in business, we take as an example a shopping mall: due to the dynamics of the mall itself, the psychology of space allows to establish factors such as the distance traveled by the user within the place, in this sense, it is expected that the space is distributed in such a 3 way that allows the user to go through the entire store and this impacts on their level of consumption, improving business sales. For these objectives to be achieved, optical illusions are used to create a certain impression on the user, such as painting an entire space white or using continuous elements to create the visual effect of a larger than real space, another device allows the use of certain patterns of light or shapes to draw people's attention to a specific point or even divert that attention. Thirdly, it is important to analyze the psychology of color as it is a transcendental element in design in general. Neuroscientists, doctors and psychologists state that colors directly affect human beings emotions and sensations. Colors have the ability to provide temperature perception and generate feelings of happiness, according to (Peláez-Becerra, Gómez-Gómez, & Becerra, 2015) in an observational research developed in Colombia, the research group assigned emotions to a range of colors, where it is observed that, for example, black color causes feelings of fear to 45% of the population. The designer in this case controls the desired emotions through instruments such as the color wheel, which allows creating better combinations and shades. The color even includes cultural aspects, thus, in occident countries white color is synonymous of purity, while for certain Asian cultures, white is synonymous of mourning, the same applies to colors such as red or black among others that have different connotations depending on their location. An additional element within the design is materiality. Historically, materials and colors have been assigned to a certain gender, in this sense, the use of raw stone or dark leather skins have been stereotyped as elements whose projection denotes masculinity, pastel colors have been assigned to child populations and floral patterns have been assigned to femininity, however, it is important to note that these perceptions are subject to the evolution of society itself and the way 4 it eliminates stereotypes or creates others over time. The materiality also provides a message according to the objective, for example, the use of natural fabrics or fibers communicates sustainability and naturalness, while the use of glossy vinyl in hospitals provides a message of cleanliness and neatness necessary for those spaces. With this said, it is clear again, that previous information and knowledge of the user allows to fulfill the design objective that businesses or institutions wish to project. Finally, it is concluded that each element analyzed above, such as prior information, psychology of space, psychology of color and materiality, play a key role in achieving the construction of efficient and pleasant environments. Fundamentally, research in interior design is as important as creativity and good taste, since it allows designers to identify the characteristics of clients and users in order to use this information for the designs benefit, knowing that neurologically, this has a great influence on the behavior, relationships and emotions of human beings. Given the responsibility involved in the construction of spaces, designing an environment in an empirical way without research or previous knowledge can be dangerous, unfunctional, unprofitable or unsustainable, because it is useless a space that is only visually beautiful and does not meet the desired functionality, without optimizing space and function, therefore, although each client chooses different and unique designs, all projects are framed in a general objective pursued by all of the people who make up the design; which is to provide comfort to the user of the space and to ensure that each project cost becomes an investment rather than an expense in the long run. References Delgado, C. (2020). Nociones del espacio interior entre las Lógicas de Coherencia Espacial y La Percepción Visual. Cuadernos del Centro de Estudios en Diseño y Comunicación. Ensayos. 5 Enriquez, K. (25 de Septiembre de 2020). Universidad de las Americas y el Caribe. Obtenido de Psicologia ambiental y diseño de interiores: https://unac.edu.mx/2020/09/25/psicologiaambiental-y-diseno-de-interiores/ García-Arano, C. (2020). El diseño como una necesidad interdisciplinar. Una reflexión desde la academia. Interticios sociales no.20. Grimaldo-López, J.-A., & Botello-Arredondo, I. (2018). Proceso creativo para una línea de diseño interior. Jóvenes en la ciencia, 2068-2072. Obtenido de Jóvenes en la ciencia. Peláez-Becerra, S., Gómez-Gómez, P., & Becerra, M. (2015). Emociones cromáticas: análisis de la percepción de color basado en emociones y su relación con el consumo de moda. Anagramas. Pérez-Jaimes, A. (2016). Diseño interior: solución integral a los espacios. . Belgrado: Universidad de Belgrado. Polifroni-Peñate, O. (2013). El diseño de espacios como hábitat interior del ser humano. Módulo Arquitectura, 47-54. Semchysyn, N. (2011). ¿De qué manera el diseño interior influye en el desarrollo de empresas? Buenos Aires: Universidad de Belgrano. Suarez, V.-G. (2020). Diseño basado en la evidencia. La Plata: Universidad Católica de la Plata.
