Ask the Environmental Psychologist...

In My Humble Opinion
1

OK, OK I’ll bite. I’ve seen these threads for a long time now and finally decided to join…

No I don’t council Trees and Shrubs, I don’t give advice to only people in Green Peace…Actually I am a teacher at a small liberal arts college in New Enlgand, and I own my own business on the side.

Basically, EP is the study of humans with-in their habitat and how ones surroundings affect their behavior. Many people liken some aspects of it to Feng Shui!

My business centers around designing everything from children’s rooms to hospital neo-natal units to office set-up and design to elderly housing projects - the latter I wrote my thesis on.

We are responsible for countless town and city re-organizations, facelifts etc…etc… They are usually under the guise of Main Street Projects and the like.

I enjoy teaching very much, but my passion is infront of a very challenging design. For instance, my latest project is designing a room for triplets. Some of the highlights of the room include: an indoor tree house, seperate unit dwellings with-in the singular module, and of course a chat pit. (chat pit - a sunken circular area with padding and seating) the boys will use it for rough housing I am sure.

I am currently off for the summer - this is not usual, usually I have to teach summer session - and I am preparing for some personal additions to my house and a few jobs over the summer.

So anyone have any questions? Design problems, hints? It is a very fun field to get into, and those of you in college, it is a very fun field to major in.

2

I (along with many, many other people) am stuck for much of my life in an awful office, with recirculated air and flickering flourescent lights, and synthetic carpets and walls which are surely off-gassing something awful, and it’s sometimes too hot and sometimes too cold … you know the drill.

Most offices I’ve been in spend mucho $$$ on making sure we know how to align our screens properly and that we’re sitting on proper chairs, but there is a passionate and widespread indifference to any other environmental concerns.

I know that enlightened people such as yourself know the problems of bad air and stupid lighting in offices, where most North Americans spend most of their time. Do you think anything will ever be done about it?

And in the mean time, is there anything I can do to make my cube more live-able, considering I have no control over lighting, ventilation, building materials etc? (I do have a little spider plant, who is very unhappy here, but she perserveres for my benefit.)

3

So, you are the type person who would, say, tell a hospital not to paint the mental ward red because red creates feelings of stress? Is this correct? I kinda get what you do, but am trying harder to understand. Please forgive my ignorance.

4

Cowgirl - Check out Hepa filters for inner office usage. You can buy small ones that really make a difference in a Cube.
Your little spider plant is actually a perfect plant for your area. You may be watering it a little too much, a common thing for cube plants.
Also practice - Biophillia, which is the bringing of natural things into unnatural environs, such as office cubes. Plants, plants, plants!! You will not notice a difference until maybe a week or so, when you realize your cube is suddenly a little more liveable…Plus the air purifier will add some white noise…take out some of that office ringing and beeping…

Lyllyan - Yes, I would tell an architect to not paint the psych ward red, but more of a pink, or light green hue.

5

Ack is that why so many hospital type places are that awful shade of salmon?! That doesn’t calm me so much as makes me nauseus. Guess you can’t raise a ruckus if you wanna hurl? :slight_smile:

That sounds really neat though for a job. Kind of an architect with a clue methinks. Someone who can design a space to be functional and livable all at the same time!

That must be one huge kids room to have space for three mini rooms inside it. I like the chat pit concept…

6

Interesting.

A few years ago, I had a coworker who was allergic to dogs and so, having two of 'em, converted my (detached) garage into a “dining room” when I wanted to have my coworkers over for dinner.

I chose a lovely shade of lilac to paint the inside of the garage, and was informed by a friend of mine that lilac makes people want to puke.

(Nobody did, thankfully, although my boss was staggering around with a broken pinata on his head by evening’s end.)

So how much does your work focus on color? And what would you say is the most important aspect in the design of a space (like if you and a number of other people were collaborating on a project, and you could only have your way on one aspect of the room, which would it be)? Color? Placement of objects/furniture? Amount of space? Light?

Tell!

7

Tanookie, I like the chat pit concept, too. It’s so 70s! My elementary had one giant, carpeted room for 4th, 5th, and 6th grades combined (three classes at each level!) and in one corner of it was the “Drama Pit”, which was basically the same thing.

8

Auntie em - good question, I’d choose Hang design for the room, if I was in charge of only one thing. That way everything that went on the walls less the paint would be up to me. Sconces, paintings, wall plants, window placement etc…etc…

Color starts a design for me. I am not an Architect. I do not do pitch, wall length, size etc…etc… I am not an interior designer…I am someone who studies people and what in their environment makes them do particular things. Why does red make some people turned on, or paisley make people be more creative. I take all the things an interior designer and architect do, and package them all up in a 3 to 4 hour consultation with client and designer.

I’ve designed elderly housing complexes by disorder. Example: Someone with severe osteoporosis would have lowered cabinets, shallower sink basins etc…etc… so reach was allowed by limited movement.

Yes the kids had a wonderful room when finished. I spent the afternoon with the family and came up with the design perfect for the 4 year old terrors.

Chat pits are great nodal places for people to talk and be with one another. I have a granite chat pit in my back yard with an additional sunken fireplace in the center. I built it with my wife two summers ago.

9

I’m a real slob, and it stresses me out. I concentrate better when I have a clean living space, but I also work a whole whole lot and don’t have just a whole lot of time to keep my place up. What are some of the little things I can do that pay off well in terms of sprucing my place up and keeping it neater?

10

Pravnik - are you handy? Try building some benches or chest’s where they serve two purposes. Storage and some other utility. For instance, My wife and I collect books, naturally we have tons of books lying around everywhere. So we started building really cool bookshelves. One bookshelf was actually fasened onto a large door we have, so it is in essence a hidden door.
Hide your clutter is what I am saying. If you are a slob, fine, and if not seeing it will help, then buy or make somethings that can hide your trait.

11

Two questions

1)Neo-natal units. If you designed any of these did you address the problem of the Godawful Neverending Alarms? Also what accomodations did you design for the parents? The NICU our daughter was in appeared to assume that babies did not have parents. Personally I believe that each baby should be in a private room with a double bed for the parents and a shower.

2)What would you suggest in this case: say I’m building a new house (in my dreams). I want to maximize hospitableness. I want guests coming for dinner to be as at ease as possible, starting from driving up and coming to the door. Imagine I will be still preparing dinner when they arrive, but want to be included in conversation. My husband will be marshalling children, including toddlers. What in the arrangement of the environment will help shy guests loosen up? Plan for 2-6 guests most of the time.

12

Dear Philosphr,

Our laundry (clean or dirty) always seems to be repelled out of the laundry basket.

Is my house posessed?

Signed,

G. Host

13

OHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHh, can I answer this one?

In order to make your guests feel welcome, have your husband greet them as they exit their car with a six pack of long necks. For their children, I highly recommend Benadryl Jello Shots.

And the best way to make the event stress free and enjoyable for everyone is to do carry out.

14

Carlotta - most NICU’s I worked on were in private facilities i.e. more monies to spend on comfort. Phoenix Children’s Hospital has an online tour if you care to check out my work in realtime. Also see our healing garden design and fact here .

Parents and children need to be close, but high risk infants need to be close to medical staff as well. Here we incorporated a circular design, with nurse stations in the center, infants in the next ring of rooms and parents in the following ring, this allowed modules to be built with an appartment type setting for parents, private showers beds etc…etc… and a personal entrance to their babies room. usually no more than 10 feet or more away.

Next Q. Carlotta as for your home, designing with out edges is the first ket to comfort. My home for instance does not have very many sharp edges or squared off angles. Most of it is wide open rounded edges. This is very calming as well. I love circular design, it really makes a difference to me and my affinity for infinity. I would love an infinity pool some day, but our property is just not high enough.

Shirley your house is not possessed. Check out unique laundry holders, such as wall mounted and under sink models. They are quite fun and having a heavy door on them usually keeps the little buggers from escaping!! :slight_smile:

15

Interesting. So tell me, how much of your work is tailored to individuals, and how much is dependent upon prescribed ideas?

Like in Feng Shui, there seem to be a pretty solid set of “rules”–a red lamp in the southeast corner of your house will have this effect, or the toilet should always face north, or what have you.

Psychology, however, seems to me to encompass a little of both. For example, in traditional therapy, you might send Jane, whose father just passed, to a death & dying support group, because years of research have shown that grieving people are often helped by having a support network of people who are in a similar situation.

However, you also might realize that despite these prescribed ideas, Jane would not flourish in such a setting, because she is nervous and reserved in group settings, or because she grew up buried under 12 loud siblings and group settings instantly make her feel like she has to compete to get her feelings heard, or whatever.

So how do these ideas play into your design of a room? Do you tend to go more with what you learn about a person (“Timmy is afraid of clowns, and Tommy loves to paint”), or do you tend to lean more towards general prescribed ideas about what works for certain situations (“Twin boys? That has ‘Tree House’ written all over it.”)?

16

Oh most certainly prescribed ideas. I use what I learned about human psychology in all of my design procedures. Like not all elderly housing units are built for individuals, infact most are not. However, there are a plethor of different types of elderly housing. Acute, sub-acute, assisted living, assisted living with in house care etc…etc…
We design these differently for different people. Like you will rarely see a tall fridge in an elderly housing complex. Because someone in a wheel chair can not reach. So we make then smaller.
Some look like a little person lives there because everything is toned Down v.
The childrens room I did was kind of a favor to a contractor buddy of mine. That is a rarity because the cost is so high. But I have consulted on kids rooms for play centers and day care as well.
Feng Shui can be worked with without the spiritual side to it. Such as using symmetry, and color, light and placement.

17

What color are the rooms of your house and why?

Living room

Kitchen

Dining Room

Bathroom

Bedroom(s)

hallways?

18

I was coming in to ask about Feng Shui, and what you think about it. Some of it seems based on common sense psychology (growing things and flowing water are soothing, sharp edges aren’t, as you mention above). Also, the suggested adjustments to the “flow” of a house would seem to make sense whether you think chi is flowing or are just talking about traffic patterns.

On the other hand, some of it seems counter to common sense – for instance, I don’t have AC, so keep the bedroom comfortable in the summer through a calibrated set of open and closed doors and windows, and carefully placed fans, to get a breeze flowing directly across my bed – extremely bad in Feng Shui terms, essential in terms of my living in that house without A/C in Philly in August.

What’s your take on Feng Shui? (I’ve had to go back and take a “t” off the second word each time I’ve typed it.) I assume you do a certain amount of eye-rolling at the trendier aspects – but do you feel you’ve learned anything (or had any of your own thinking reinforced) by its precepts?

19

Oooh, I didn’t preview – good question(s), Zebra!

20

Zebra I agree, good questions… But all the rooms in my house are padded…

Just kidding:)

Well this is actually a very easy question. I live in a modern log home, small A-Frame in the center and two wings on either side. Our kitchen is at the back o the house and it is stone/beige - ala log color. Our rooms however are sheet rock therefore paintable.

Check this cite for below descriptors.

Master Bedroom - Light Azure-Blue - my wife and I love blue, goes with our bookcases and rug/bed spread…

Study - Light Weak Red goes with book shelves and desk-style etc…etc…

Guest bedroom - Faux painted canary yellow/fire. Its a bright southerly facing room, lots of furniture canopy bed…

Basement - No windows, so my wife and I painted a 360 degree mural of an ocean scene not too far from our house. We figured if we can’t get a house on the water we could at least get close…
Every direction you look there is a scene painted from a favorite point of ours on the coast. We have our bar and T.V down there as well.

My wifes hole - as I call it, she doesn’t like me going in there - is green weak teale. Lots of poster’s by Talbot and lots of glass dolphins…

Our inner house as I said is wood color maple.

Twickster - My bed faces Southwest because It catches the best sun that way in the morning, and helps us get up to a sunny room rather than a dark hole. It is faced that way not because of the increased Chi, but our own personal needs.
Feng Shui - is great for people who are very granola - oops I mean artsy - :slight_smile: Just kidding all you Feng Shui fans. I’ll agree on a few points regarding Feng Shui.

  1. Simplicity - can be nice if not overly simplistic. ex: one couch facing east nothing else… would not suit my emotional calmness.

  2. Flow - my motto - " make your dwelling flow like a river" Feng Shui - "make the life force be able to enter you through your home/ office "

I do the same things physically, less the FS terms attached.

When people - who don’t know us - come to my house they routinely say things like “Wow you do Feng Shui…”

:rolleyes:

“Do Feng Shui??”

Oh jeez says Phlosphr, here we go…

I know I’m rambling, but I design for ease of movement, ease of thought required to navigate, and increased nodal gathering places. Just because my home is designed in such a way so that you know where the bathroom is, or can get sround our furniture easily, or when you sit you can see everything going on in the house…it’s because I want people to feel invited, happy, at ease when they come over.

My take on Feng Shui…it’s a little over the top with the whole religious experience going on, but the basic physical premise is spot on.