Psycho-sensitive Design

Psycho-sensitive Design Hemambica Magani

Ar. Harshalatha

8 semester, School of Architecture Dayananda Sagar Academy of Technology Bengaluru, India hemamagani.18@gmail.com

Asst. Professor, School of Architecture Dayananda Sagar Academy of technology and Management Bengaluru, India

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Abstract— Architecture creates opportunities where man can interact with modified and unmodified spaces, with other men, and with himself. Every line, colour and texture has a certain effect on the brain. It is how our mind perceives these characters defining a space that creates an opinion of that character in our minds. Though every mind is unique, our perception of spaces is not. The human mind can easily relate to things that are closer to nature and it takes a little comprehensive thinking to relate to unnatural objects or phenomena. This can be derived from our reactions to things we see every day.

To create a space that can suit a particular person or a group, the architect needs to understand the psychology of that person or group. It is not enough to understand the basic needs to create a space. The challenge is to create something they can relate to. And to create a space that will enhance their capabilities and help find their mind space. It can have a huge impact on the basic functionality of a group, such as workers in a factory. If the spaces are not devised to positively impact their mind, the workers may be unsatisfied and eventually productivity decreases.

From workplaces to residential spaces, architecture influences the mind in all ways. Imagine the role it can play in the healing process of rehabilitation centres and hospitals. Be it rehabilitation centres for physio therapy, or deaddiction, or mental illnesses. Architects need to play around with the site to help the patients liven up their senses and bring them hope and comfort. Every step taken by the patient should be able to push him towards the goal by providing the necessary will. The term for this could be psycho-sensitive design. It means that the design of spaces should be psychologically sensitive or in other wordsspaces, forms and functions should be derived from the psychological limitations and sensitivities of the users.

turn the space he created will impact the emotions of the user.

Broadly spaces are perceived in the same way by majority of the users. But people suffering from mental disorders and those who have a completely different perception of the world will define normalcy as something quite different from our definition. Their environment should be moulded to comfort them and provide a better understanding of the world.

II.

UNDERSTANDING THE USERS

A. Psychological Issues A mental disorder, also called a mental illness, psychological disorder or psychiatric disorder, is mental or behavioral pattern that causes either suffering or a poor ability to function in ordinary life. Such features may be persistent, relapsing and remitting, or occur as a single episode. The causes of mental disorders are often unclear.

Theories may incorporate findings from a range of fields.

Mental disorders are usually defined by a combination of how a person feels, acts, thinks or perceives. This may be associated with particular regions or functions of the brain, often in a social context. While there are over 200 classified forms of mental illness, the five major categories of mental illness are:  Anxiety Disorders 

Mood Disorders

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Schizophrenia/Psychotic Disorders

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Dementias

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Eating Disorders

Keywords— Psycho-sensitive design, Organic spaces, Senses, Rehabilitation, Space therapy, Human scale I. INTRODUCTION Architecture and psychology maintain a symbiotic relationship and one cannot exist without the other.

Architecture is born out of psychology. What the architect imagines and feels is conceptualized into a form and further onto the site. This means that the emotions and psychology of the designer has influenced the space that he created. And in

1 in 5 adults experiences a mental health condition every year.

1 in 20 lives with a serious mental illness such as schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. In addition to the person directly experiencing by a mental illness, family, friends and communities are also affected. 50% of mental health conditions begin by age 14 and 75% of mental health conditions develop by age 24. The normal personality and behaviour changes of adolescence may mimic or mask

symptoms of a mental health condition. Early engagement and support are crucial to improving outcomes and increasing the promise of recovery.

B. Treatment Mental rehabilitation is the process of restoration of community functioning and well-being of an individual diagnosed in mental health or mental or emotional disorder and who may be considered to have a psychiatric disability. A mental rehabilitation centre operates to do the same by providing an exclusive environment that is comfortable and revitalising in all ways.

The concept of rehabilitation has been derived from the following triad: PSYCHO

SOCIO

BIO

This treatment includes medication as the biological aspect, counselling as the psychological aspect and the social aspect is brought in through the rehabilitation center as a whole. In such centers patients can interact with one another which will bring comfort from knowing they are not the only ones.

III.

NEED FOR REHABILITATION CENTRES IN INDIA

Nearly half of those with severe mental disease aren't treated and of those with less severe versions, nearly 9 in 10 go uncared for. Six percent of Kerala’s population has mental disorders and 1 in a 5 have emotional and behavioural problems, ranging from mild to severe.

stated that the prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents was 9.4 percent.

The impact of inadequate mental health treatment can be estimated--though not entirely correlated-- by its effect on suicide rates. WHO statistics say the average suicide rate in India is 10.9 for every lakh people. While the lack of open conversation around mental health is a crucial impediment, experts say this contributes to fewer resources and doctors available.

IV. ARCHITECTURAL ELEMENTS All architectural elements influence the mind as parts and also as a space combining all parts as a whole. Designing a space should have to essentially include a trial and error exercise where the architect experiments with various permutations and combinations of all elements to create a positively influential space. To understand the whole, the effect of each part should be identified.

A. Lines and Volumes Straight walls and shapes are harder on the eye compared to curved and flowing surfaces. This is due to the fact that most things in nature have curved surfaces and hence curved forms give an organic feel. But the human mind can easily relate to geometric shapes as well since they are most used by nature.

The psychologist Joan Meyers-Levy, at the Carlson School of Management, conducted an interesting experiment that examined the relationship between ceiling height and thinking style. She demonstrated that, when people are in a lowceilinged room, they are much quicker at solving anagrams involving confinement, such as “bound,” “restrained” and “restricted.” In contrast, people in high-ceilinged rooms excel at puzzles in which the answer touches on the theme of freedom, such as “liberated” and “unlimited.” According to Levy, this is because airy spaces prime us to feel free.

This also doesn't begin to account for the extent of counselling that is required. According to the government's estimates about 1 in 5 people in the country need counselling, either psychological or psychiatric.

Depression, the most prevalent form of mental illness, is estimated to exist in 3 of every 100 in urban areas like Mumbai and of this 1 in 3 are severely neurotic.

Alzheimer’s disease was the most common of severe disorders (54%) followed by vascular dementia (39%). In 2000, a review of epidemiological studies estimated that the prevalence of mental disorders in India was 70.5 per 1000 in rural and 73 per 1000 in the urban population. In 1999, a study

Furthermore, Levy found that rooms with lofty ceilings also lead people to engage in more abstract styles of thinking.

Instead of focusing on the particulars of things, they’re better able to zoom out and see what those things have in common.

(It’s the difference between “item-specific” versus “relational” processing.) Sometimes, of course, we want to

focus on the details of an object or problem, in which case a claustrophobic basement is probably ideal.

B. Colours and Textures A research included a group of people testing attempting cognitive tests under two different conditions – a red coloured room and a blue coloured room. When people took tests in the red condition – they were surrounded by walls the color of a stop sign – they were much better at skills that required accuracy and attention to detail, such as catching spelling mistakes or keeping random numbers in short-term memory.

According to the scientists, this is because people automatically associate red with danger, which makes them more alert and aware.

The color blue, however, carried a completely different set of psychological benefits. While people in the blue group performed worse on short-term memory tasks, they did far better on those requiring some imagination, such as coming up with creative uses for a brick or designing a children’s toy out of simple geometric shapes. In fact, subjects in the blue condition generated twice as many “creative outputs” as subjects in the red condition. That’s right: the color of a wall doubled our imaginative power.

ornamentation, are uncluttered, have an open view, good illumination and so forth. Good designs do not demand too much attention, and are easy to move through and understand – imagine the different experiences between a busy underground station at rush hour and a park in the full summer sun, for instance. Such environments tend to promote wellbeing in a general overarching way.

When it comes to understanding people’s preferences, environmental psychologists broadly look at three categories: how people perceive design elements and other attributes like illumination, materials and furnishings; intrinsic factors such as how a person feels on a given day, or their previous experiences of similar environments; and the social things that happen in the space, such as using it for sport, or intimidating youths hanging around.

When it comes to perception of space the user interacts with the built and unbuilt forms in accordance to the limits of his personal spaces.

According to the scientists, the colour blue automatically triggers associations with the sky and ocean. We think about expansive horizons and diffuse light, sandy beaches and lazy summer days. This sort of mental relaxation makes it easier for us daydream and think in terms of tangential associations; we’re less focused on what’s right in front of us and more aware of the possibilities simmering in our imagination.

Similarly textures also play a major role. Textures are susually brought out by the materials that are used. Organic materials and natural materials such as stone, exposed brick, wood and the likes, it’s easier to comprehend rather than processed or manufactured materials such as steel and concrete.

C. Environment and Space If we don’t like a particular environment we will not dwell in it voluntarily – be it a public space, a shopping centre or our home. But deciding what environment is OK or preferable is a difficult task. There are multiple reasons why one person will like one place while someone else will dislike it with a passion.

The condition of a site is important to how people respond to it. One of the recurrent findings is that people tend to prefer environments that are clean, have a degree of

The father of analytical psychology Carl Jung described architecture as “a structural diagram of human psyche.”

Architects need to understand the impact of every line they draw, every wall they erect, and the colours they choose, the materials, the forms along with their functionality, and understand how every design decision they make speaks to the psychology of the user.

References 

Acknowledgment We sincerely thank our Principal Mr.Laksmikantha and the Dean SOA Ar.Ramesh Gaddam and our college Dayananda Sagar Academy of Technology and Management for giving us an opportunity to present and submit this paper in the prestigious NCCSTM 2016.

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Departmen for veteran affairs design guide 2010 for mental health facilities Joint commissioning panel for mental health – rehabilitation services for people with complex mental health needs World Health Organization – Psiciatric services and architecture Psychology for Architects - David V. Canter http://theconversation.com/architectures-brief-love-affair-withpsychology-is-overdue-a-revival-45896 http://www.bdcnetwork.com/where-psychology-meets-architecture http://www.wired.com/2011/04/the-psychology-of-architecture/