Your life is an experience, in every breath and step, and it’s defined by your thoughts and your environment. There is an experience in your home, your work, your grocery store, your coffee shop, and everywhere else you go. But not all experiences are created equally, or rather, designed equally. The results produced in an environment can vary dramatically based on the process and approach in which it was designed. And the behaviors carried out in an environment can change drastically based on the feeling and atmosphere experienced in that environment. This can be found in all spaces and places, that the quality of human performance is directly shaped by the quality of its environment.
As we all aim to make the highest and best use of our time, work, and lives, we must first pay attention to the environment that we are a product of. And in doing so, not just look at the things we can see and touch, but the things that we feel.
Every space makes you feel something, the question is whether it’s intentional and optimal. How does your space make you feel?
Space prompts thought patterns, be it designed or accidentally. What direction of thought does your space prompt in your mind?
Spatial settings prompt neurological cues in your brain. Which motivation does it drive in your actions?
When designing transactionally, it’s like designing in black and white. The space will check the boxes required of it materially, but it will lack “color”, or the energetic layer that sets the tone for all activities. It meets functional requirements but fails to activate the behavioral system.
You may have a desk and a chair installed in your space and it may function exactly as it should, it may appear on paper as though nothing is wrong, except that when you sit down to log into your computer, the feeling falls flat. This is because humans are experiential and not mechanical, and to achieve the best return on an experience, it must be experientially designed.
Some might say that work is work, and a workplace doesn’t need to earn design awards to be productive. And that may be true to a certain extent, but a function can only operate to the level of its system. With that approach, there will always be a lower ceiling to the quality of work that can be accomplished. Feeling is the highest form of function. Consider how much better work quality could be, how much clearer a mind could think, how much more could be accomplished if a space operated at 100% rather than 70, sparked the brain into action, complimented workflow instead of being an obstacle despite it.
To understand why environments perform differently, we must look at the components that shape them. And as we look more closely into interiors and furnishings, the pieces we choose say a lot, and almost everything, about what the space is and how it’s meant to make people feel. A space will always reveal the way in which it was approached: If it was built in a rush, it will carry the tension. If it was built with vision, it will show inspiration. Materials, lighting, silhouettes, the space planning, all tell a story that the users live in. And that can be reverse-engineered and tailored to their goals and needs. To achieve a fully actualized and living space, it needs feeling, not just furniture.
Not every space needs to be emotionally charged, but every space should be intentionally aligned with the behaviors it’s meant to support. When we design for feeling, we design for better thinking, better working, and better living. The space becomes a system, and the system becomes an advantage.