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Chapter 2

Understanding the Basics of Environmental Psychology

Environmental psychology has identified ways that aspects of the environment

around us consistently influence how we experience the physical world.

Applying what environmental psychologists have learned about design makes certain types of experiences, thoughts, etc., more probable, but does not definitively determine mental states or actions. Also, the implications of what’s going on around us do add up to make a particular mood more likely, but there are other nonphysical influences on what we ultimately think and do. For example, a calming bedroom design won’t relax you if you’ve just heard the exciting news that you’re about to become a parent, but it makes it likely that you’ll be cooler and more collected when you hear that news than you’d be otherwise.

This book is geared toward interested general readers, so references for the scientifically-derived information that follows aren’t included in the text; if you’d like more information about topics covered and the sources of findings presented, please take a look at the Recommended Readings noted at the end of the book.

Designing for Our Ancient Selves

Our sensory apparatus—our eyes, skin, nose, ears, and taste buds—developed eons ago, and the same sorts of sensory experiences that were positive during our early days as a species continue to calm us and boost our mood.

Being in certain sorts of spaces helped us survive long ago, and looking at the same types of places today is good for us mentally.

Seeing nature scenes through windows or in realistic images helps us restock our levels of mental energy after we’ve depleted them by concentrating for a while, whether on writing code, deciphering the directions for a complicated handicraft project, or something else. They also help us feel less stressed. Nature views help us feel calmer, boost our cognitive performance, and make us more likely to get along better with others, for example. Psychology-wise, the “best” scenes look as if we could step into them and seem to extend far into the distance. We enjoy seeing rolling hills, for example, and clumps of trees that we might, if we are nimble and quick enough, scamper up to escape trouble. Green is key; arid landscapes are not desirable, at least psychologically, and neither are jungles. If you are building a home or office or landscaping one, you can create these sorts of views through your windows. If you’re not going to be building or landscaping, add some art or photographs of nature, as they’ll also work well.

Green is key.

Looking at water is particularly good for de-stressing and restocking our mental resources and energy levels. “Manmade” water, say a fountain with gently moving water, works as well as a stream. The effort of adding a fountain to an enclosed courtyard without plants, or to a desktop, is quickly earned back via pleasant feelings.

All the views we have in a space aren’t outdoors, and all interior views are definitely not created equal. The best ones are those in which we have our backs against something that seems to protect us (such as a wall, a high-backed chair, or a sturdy plant) and where we have a view out over the world around us. People in a conversation niche with a built-in bench tucked into a workplace hallway have this sort of view. Someone perched on a window seat does, too. The first seats taken in seat-yourself restaurants are in booths and have a view of the restaurant’s entry. This fondness for protected seats with a view seems tied to our evolutionary past—at one time when our species was young, perches on tree branches high above the ground may have provided the situational awareness we needed to survive.

For practical and aesthetic reasons, not all of the furniture in your home should be placed against the walls. Putting all of the furniture against the walls restricts how you can use a space and can mean that people trying to talk to each other find themselves at uncomfortable distances. So put something solid behind seats that “float” in the middle of a room, because their backs are more than a couple of feet from walls. You have a range of options for that “protective” element, but the key is to keep any of those hypothetical rear-approaching evildoers about an arm’s length away—a credenza behind a couch does that. Try to place your furniture so that as few seated people as possible have their backs to hallways or walkways.

Being able to see a long way makes us feel comfortable in our homes.

In nature, if we feel safe, we can see far into the distance, and being able to see a long way makes us feel comfortable in our homes. Try to position some seats in your home so that people sitting in them can see from one room into the next, and, if possible, through a window to see outside by carefully positioning furniture and opportunistically looking for spaces in your homes with views. Having views through your home is possible, even if you’re not living in an open plan. Precisely placing some chairs enables people to have long views through a home even if there are plenty of walls. Some PlaceTypes are more comfortable when they have more audio and visual separation from others; if it turns out you’re in one of those groups, position screens or install doors so you have some control over others’ long views of you.

Things move in nature, but when something moves inside most of the places we design, generally, it’s on its way to crashing to the floor. A mobile, wall hanging, or window curtain that drifts in a gentle air-conditioning or heating current near the ceiling adds comforting motion to a space; it’s reminiscent of breezes moving through long-ago meadows on wonderful sunny days. If the air-conditioning or heating currents in your home make you think more of hurricanes than drifting butterflies, reposition mobiles or flex sculptures etc. so they move in a window draft or the current of air behind someone walking through an area instead. Daylight in a space will naturally create a sense of movement as shadows change position during the day.

Personality fine-tunes how we respond to seeing other people, but it’s generally true that seeing other humans revs us up. We needed to work together to survive long ago, and that early work was often physically demanding. Our nervous systems continue to respond accordingly, boosting our energy level when we see others, as if after their appearance we’ll soon be chasing prey or lifting boulders. If you’re creating a public sort of space that’ll be visited by people with all sorts of personality profiles, build in some screens—things that people cannot see through—to improve visitors’ experiences.

Sensory Experiences

Colors on Surfaces

Often, fears of making a mistake lead people to paint their walls white or beige and select “safe” colors for furniture, for example, browns that won’t show dirt or wear. Choosing colors without information about the psychological consequences of selections made can indeed be intimidating. Different PlaceTypes are supported particularly well by certain color schemes, as described in individual PlaceType write-ups; we will review some general information about color here.

Homeowners have the freedom to paint interior walls whatever colors they choose; all are free to pick the colors that appear on their furniture, rugs, carpets, etc.

The first thing to know about color is that it has three elements: hue, saturation, and brightness.

•A hue is a set of wavelengths we categorize into the same group. Red is a hue, and so are orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. There are multiple shades of red and orange, for example. Cultures assign meanings to hues, and those associations make some hues good choices for some spaces and not so good options in others.

•Saturation is how pure a color is. Emerald green is more saturated than sage green, and pumpkin oranges are more saturated than smoky shades of orange. Colors that are less saturated seem a little grayer than saturated ones.

•Brightness is how much white seems to be mixed into a color—you could think of brightness as roughly synonymous with lightness. Colors that are brighter have more white mixed into them, so baby blue is lighter than a sapphire blue.

In North America, some of the associations we have to hues are:

•Blue is linked to trustworthiness, competence, and dependability, so if you are a consultant who will participate in video conference calls from your at-home desk, paint the wall that will be seen as you speak blue. Blue is also linked more strongly with environmental responsibility than any other color.

•Yellow is simultaneously associated with the sun and with cowardice and treachery.

•Orange is linked to being a good value.

•Green is a shade we associate with nature, environmental responsibility, and rebirth (think: spring).

•White is a color that we generally link to being modern as well as to cleanliness, purity, and honesty.

•Purple is tied to sophistication.

•Black is linked to power, high cost, sophistication, formality, and death.

•Brown is associated with ruggedness.

Research has tied seeing certain hues to very particular psychological outcomes:

•When we look at the color green, we’re more likely to think creatively.

•Seeing even a small amount of red briefly degrades our ability to think analytically.

•Looking at the color red gives us a burst of brute physical strength, so it may be a good option for the wall behind the washing machine or the one you see while lifting weights. However, looking at red won’t help with physical tasks that require specialized skills, such as hitting a tennis ball, or with an activity that requires strength over an extended period of time, such as riding a stationary bicycle.

•Viewing red also raises how energized we feel, generally.

•Red color signals “danger” and that cautious behavior is in order.

•Heterosexual people who see someone of the opposite gender against a red background think that other person is more attractive and desirable than when the same person is viewed against a different colored background.

•Looking at pink, particularly the color of Pepto-Bismol, is very calming.

•Seeing the color pink makes women feel more optimistic, and people generally associate the color pink with optimism.

Colors can be warm or cold, and their “temperature” matters—a lot:

•Warm colors are ones that you’re likely to see in a roaring fire: reds, oranges, and yellows. Cool ones wouldn’t be out of place in an ice cave: blues and greens, for example. Neutral colors like beiges, grays, browns, and even whites can be warmer or cooler. If you’re trying to tell if a neutral color or a purple is warm or cool, hold it against a surface that you know to be warm or cool, such as a wall painted orange or a wall painted green—you’ll know immediately if the sample is in the same “temperature” as the known surface. Cool colors such as a blue can be relatively warmer or cooler just as an orange can be relatively warmer or cooler. For the purposes of the points that follow, however, all oranges, yellows, and reds can be thought of as warm colors and all blues and greens can be seen as cool ones.

•When we’re in a warm-colored space, we actually do feel warmer than we do when we’re in an otherwise identical cool-colored space. The difference in apparent temperature is slight but enough in many cases to drive us to feeling just right, or too hot or too cold. If you live in an area where cool winter weather is more of a concern than summer heat, paint the entryway to your home or office a warm color. Or do you make your home in Miami or Caracas or some other place where summer heat is more of an issue than winter cold? Do the reverse, paint your entryway blue. We also expect warmer colored surfaces to be physically warmer than cooler colored ones.

•People seen against warm colors seem a little friendlier, so a warm color is a good option for anywhere you plan to hang out with others.

•People who have cool colors behind them seem more powerful, while people with warm colors behind them seem less powerful. Also, people in spaces where cooler colors predominate feel more powerful than those in spaces featuring warm colors. These links to power are important in offices.

•Warm colors do make it more likely we’ll feel hungry. This is a bad thing if you or someone you live with fights a daily battle with calories, but a very good thing if you are feeding a three-year-old who finds all foods, particularly ones you prepare, too disgusting to eat.

•Time seems to pass more slowly in rooms featuring warm colors and more quickly in ones that feature cool shades. These effects can be important in areas where people will need to wait or where they may not enjoy spending time.

•We’re drawn toward warm colors, so they’re great shades for the ends of long hallways that people need to walk down or for the wall behind a reception desk.

Colors can also be bright or dark. As mentioned earlier, brighter colors seem to have more white mixed into them than darker colors do, they could also be thought of as lighter colors:

•Spaces with lighter colored walls seem larger than ones with darker colored walls, even if their square footage is the same. If a wall is painted a lighter color, it seems farther away than when it is painted a darker color. The way that color affects apparent distance can be used to “right-shape” rooms that seem to have odd or undesirable dimensions. For example, make a very long and narrow room seem less oblong by painting the two walls that are farther from each other darker colors.

•Ceilings that are lighter colors seem farther from the floor than ceilings that are darker colors. Ceilings also seem higher when the walls are lighter colors than when they’re darker.

•We feel more comfortable when the darkest color in a space is on the floor under our feet, the lightest one is over our heads, and intermediary shades connect the two—this is the way colors are often distributed in nature. The ground is often a dark color, for example, and we stand on it. A dark rug on a white or very light-colored floor makes people feel more comfortable.

•When people are estimating the weight of an object, they are likely to feel that it weighs less if it’s a lighter color and more if it’s a darker one. Putting darker colors closer to the earth, lower on a wall, or on a piece of furniture, etc., and utilizing lighter colors higher up makes whatever is being viewed seem more stable.

•The same color paint will seem to be a darker if it’s painted on a surface with more texture.

Humans generally prefer to look at some hues and aren’t that keen on seeing others.

Across the planet, people are more likely to tell you that blues are their favorite colors than any other shades. That makes blues good options for walls if you are planning on selling your home soon.

Yellows, particularly very yellowy greens are the least popular colors worldwide.

It’s important to use preferred colors in a space whenever possible, because when we’re seeing preferred colors, smelling preferred smells, etc., we’re more likely to be in a good mood, which makes it more likely that we’ll be friendlier to other people, be better at problem-solving, and think more creatively, for starters, as discussed earlier.

Our minds don’t work as well in spaces filled with shades of gray and white; we’re so bored by them that our minds drift toward unpleasant thoughts. Humans find gray and white areas less pleasant places to be than ones that feature greens, blues, reds, oranges, purples, and even yellows.

When we see more saturated colors, we feel more stimulated, and brighter colors put us in a more upbeat mood. Colors that are not very saturated but are relatively bright are relaxing—a light sage green is an example of a familiar shade that meets these criteria. Not very saturated but bright colors are also good choices for places where people need to concentrate. To feel more invigorated, use colors that are really saturated but not very bright, like jewel tones—the color of a perfect rich emerald, for example. The bluish shade on the walls in the cover photo for this book is relaxing to look at, while the blue upholstery on the chair is a more energizing shade to view.

To structure future discussions of colors, we can use the following color family names:

Neutrals: The colors of sand, clouds, and light-colored stones

Hazy colors: Deeper grays and khaki greens

Pastels: Light colors and saturated shades

Jewel tones: Think sapphires, emeralds, rubies, and the jewel of all fruit, eggplants

Naturals: Greens and the less saturated and bright shades of more subdued flowers

Metallics: Shiny copper and brass colors

If looking at particular colors brings an intense association to mind, use that color only when that mental message is desirable within the intended context. You may link a particular shade of yellow with marvelous times your family had on your grandmother’s front porch because yellow vines grew along the walls there. That yellow should be in your living room. Do you have pleasant memories related to the distinctive blue on the inside walls of the church where you were married? Make sure to use that color somewhere in your home. If you have intense negative associations to a color, don’t use it in your home or office even if it’s trendy, or even if something that you’re shopping for is less expensive in that color. Color-memory links are made in a primordial part of our brain, and you will never be able to ignore or change negative associations.

If you’re color-blind, you should ask a friend what color something is in important situations, such as when you’re putting together an office that others will visit, so you don’t inadvertently signal something undesirable. If you are color-blind, you can still judge the saturation and brightness of various colors. Choose colors that are brighter and less saturated when the goal is relaxation and ones that aren’t as bright and are more saturated when you want to get a boost of energy from the world around you.

Colors Together and Patterns

Plenty of walls are painted a single color, and lots of sofas are covered in plain upholstery in only one shade, but not all of them. Scientists have also researched how the color combinations and patterns we see on our walls, sofas, floors, duvet covers, and more influence what’s going on in our heads.

Some color combinations seem more pleasant to our eyes than others. If you plan to use colors together in a space, assemble samples of all of them and attach them to a piece of board or heavy paper. Look at the planned combinations in a variety of lights to make sure they blend as well in practice as they do in theory.

Using slightly different tints of one color in a space can be relaxing, except if that one color is white/beige, as noted above. Non-white/beige monochrome environments can be good choices for in-home spas or meditation areas, for example.

When used together, colors across the color wheel from each other make us feel more energized (don’t forget the effects of saturation and brightness), and this effect is intensified if the colors used are very different in saturation and brightness. Reds and greens are across the color wheel from each other, and so are blues and oranges as well as yellows and purples. Pairs of colors beside each other on the color wheel (for example, purples and blues, blues and greens, greens and yellows, yellows and oranges, oranges and reds, and reds and purples) have the opposite effect on us when we use them together. It’s more pleasant when colors used together have approximately equal saturation levels but have a range of different brightness levels.

But what about the patterns we see on rugs, upholstery, wallpapers, and elsewhere? What’s best to choose when?

•Sometimes lines are curvier, other times they’re straighter. Paisleys feature lots and lots of curving lines and teardrop-like shapes, for example, while plaids are heavy on straight lines arrayed at pointy angles to each other, along with squares and rectangles of color. Paisleys are more curvilinear, while plaids are more rectilinear. We generally are more relaxed by patterns and objects with more curves and more energized by those that are straighter and “pointier.” We have the same response to curved and straight lines whether they’re in patterns on surfaces or if they determine the shapes of furniture or other objects.

•Curvier lines and forms are associated with women, femininity, friendliness, and comfort, while more angular ones are linked to men, masculinity, action, strength, and efficiency. Rectilinear patterns and shapes in furniture, moldings, and elsewhere are good for exercise zones and laundry rooms; curvy ones are best for nurseries. A pattern that’s a mix of curvy and straight elements will be more or less relaxing, depending on which elements are more plentiful.

•Small size patterns on wallpapers, etc., are the ones most of us like best. These patterns will repeat more times in a space than larger patterns. A small size pattern on wallpaper might feature daisies that are two inches across or smaller; a large size pattern could include daisies larger than that, for example.

•Moderately complicated patterns are preferred to more complex ones and are also those that are most pleasant to look at. These patterns use just a few shapes, although those two or three shapes might be of several sizes and a similar number of hues. A pattern of moderate visual complexity might use circles and squares of a few different sizes and colors on a neutral color background, with about half of the background visible. One alternative with moderate visual complexity would be a pattern that uses several different flower shapes in several darker shades of pink on a light violet background. A few more examples: a Navaho rug has moderate visual complexity, and a Persian rug has high visual complexity.

•Rug patterns can be used to make hallways seem shorter. If two different patterns or textures are used in a corridor, or one asymmetrical pattern is used and that pattern sometimes seems more to the left and at other times seems to be more to the right along the length of a hallway, the hall will seem shorter. If distances are perceived as shorter, people are more likely to move forward, so this information can be used to encourage trips down hallways, for example.

•Visual symmetry, which is often linked with formality, has several forms: reflected and rotated, for example. With reflected symmetry, the shapes are found on either side of a straight line, but their position is reversed. If the image is duplicated on either side of a vertical line, for example, whatever is on the left side of the image on the left side of that vertical line is mirrored on the right side of the image when it’s on the right side of that same vertical line. With rotated symmetry, items are repeated around a central hub, the way spokes repeat around the center of a wheel. Humans generally prefer symmetrical patterns, graphics, and artwork compared to asymmetrical options and find them more beautiful. They also prefer symmetrical architecture to asymmetrical spaces. Seeing something that’s symmetrical is also likely to improve our mood.

•We’d rather look at horizontal and vertical lines than diagonal ones. Also, diagonal lines that start on the lower left and move to the upper right (ascending lines, ones like this /) are linked in our minds with relatively higher activity levels than diagonals that are higher on the left and lower on the right (ones like this \); these descending diagonals are linked in our minds to relaxation. Ascending lines are better for exercise areas and descending ones for meditation spaces, for example.

•A common color or shape can coordinate various patterns and design elements (such as wallpapers and carpets).

Light

How a space is lit has a major effect on our mood. Natural light is as welcome to a human as it is to a begonia. The light that flows through windows helps us keep our circadian rhythms in sync with the world around us. When they’re out of sync, we feel like we’re jet-lagged, we grow tense, and our level of well-being plummets.

When we’re in a space at least partially lit with natural light, we think more broadly—so we are more apt to be creative, better at solving problems, and better at getting along with others. Position curtains to let in as much daylight as possible, or consider taking them down altogether. Window blinds that roll up or move completely to the side of a window can provide privacy when needed but don’t block sunlight when they’re rolled up.

Be mindful of glare if you forgo the curtains. Glare can counter all of the good effects that flow from bathing your rooms in sunlight. Sheer curtains can help keep the glare down at different times of day, and so can judicious use of shiny finishes; with fewer shiny surfaces, there is less glare. Some PlaceTypes find shiny things more desirable than others do, but even people who relish shine should plan a space to keep it glare free.

Just like colors, light can be either warm or cool. When we talk about research on colored light, we’re discussing investigations of subtle gradations in the light experienced, not those garish red, blue, green, and orange bulbs sold at Halloween and Christmas time. Those odd-colored bulbs distort social interactions; it is thought that is because they make everyone’s skin seem to be odd colors. They aren’t something you’d want to use in your home or office.

The packages that most light bulbs come in today are labeled warm or cool. If you have some older bulbs hanging around and they’re marked only in degrees Kelvin, warm bulbs have a temperature of about 2,700 K(elvin), while light seems cool at about 4,000 or more degrees Kelvin. Warm light is best for relaxing, thinking creatively, and getting along with others, while cooler light is ideal for alertness, concentrating, and analytical reasoning. Our memories also work better under relatively cooler light as compared to warmer light. Researchers have found, for example, that we tend to be in a better mood in warmer light (around 2,700 K) than we are in cooler light (around 6,000 K) at about the intensity of light generally found in offices.

•Warm light in your living room is a good idea—which won’t surprise you if you’ve ever lit a gathering with candles or a fire.

•What should you do about light color in your office, home, or elsewhere? The answer clearly depends. If you’re a poet or an accountant (the latter field being one in which creative accounting sometimes leads to jail time), choosing a light color doesn’t seem to be a problem, as the advantageous choice is clear; when your occupational success clearly depends on creative or analytical thinking, light bulb color selection is easy. It may be best for you, however, to have both warm and cool lights in your office and to turn one type or the other on at a time, with the color selected depending on what you’re trying to accomplish.

•Another consideration: surface colors look best under light colors in the same temperature family—warm surface colors generally look best in warm light and cool surface colors in cooler light. Cross temperature design can make surface colors seem muddy or like they need a good scrub. Since the saturation and brightness of a surface color determine its emotional effect, it’s generally best to pick a surface hue after deciding on the light color that makes it more likely you’ll think the sorts of thoughts you’ve planned for a space. After you’ve selected a light color, you can select a warm or cool surface color to coordinate with that light temperature.

•Warmer lights are generally preferred during the evening (which makes sense because in our evolutionary past, fires would have been a comforting presence at night), while cooler lights win out during the day. Having a mix of bulbs in a room means you can light a space in different ways at different times.

•When you’re using warm lights, for full effect, they should be placed lower than the top of your head and be focused on tabletops and other horizontal surfaces. Energizing light, that is, cooler light, should be placed higher than the top of your head and should flood the walls and splash your ceiling with light.

•Night-lights should be red or amber shades because those are less disruptive to our circadian rhythms.

Light can be darker and lighter, too. Professionals have all sorts of fancy tools to tell how bright or dark a light is, and everyone else just has eyes. What you need to know is that as light gets brighter, our energy levels climb. Intensely bright light works well for operating heavy machinery and doing surgery. The light of a single candle is great for a quiet conversation. Light-colored walls and glossy surfaces make lights seem a little brighter, and that means they are more energizing, something to remember when you’re picking materials for surfaces. Lights on dimmers or with a few preset settings allow you to select the light intensities that work for you in a particular moment.

Humans are most comfortable in spaces with certain distributions of light. Allover bright or dark is not what makes us feel good. Lighter colors on walls makes spaces seem bigger, and positioning pot lights in ceilings and other similar “luminaires” so that they bathe walls in light also makes a space seem larger—which can be a good thing or not, depending on the true size of the space and what’s planned.

“Dappled” light is a big hit with humans; we feel good when we bask in it. Dappled light is slightly darker in some places and slightly lighter in others, just like the light that comes through the branches of a leafy tree on a sunny day. Tabletop lamps are better options in socializing areas than overhead lights that bathe an entire room in a blanket of light that is the same color and intensity everywhere. Pools of light also create zones in a space. Those zones may be dedicated to a particular task, such as dining, playing cards, or meeting to discuss a new advertising campaign or other brainstorming , and that’s a good thing. They indicate a territory, and when we’re in a territory we control, we’re happier, more relaxed, and more productive. People in the same light zone tend to socialize with each other.

Science has shown that it’s useful to subtly vary the color and intensity of the light in your home and workplace to mirror the color and intensity cycles of light outdoors. This helps keep your circadian rhythms in sync with the world around you and your mood good. That means warmer light is best during morning and evening hours and cooler light works well midday. Light outdoors is brightest at noon, and light inside should also be most intense then.

Visual Complexity (Be Brave, Read This Section)

The visual complexity of an environment has a significant effect on how we feel when we’re there. Visual complexity is determined by the number of colors, shapes, and other visual elements present and their symmetry and organization.

The bottom line of all of the research that’s been done is that it’s generally best for humans to be in spaces with moderate visual complexity. We’re most relaxed and comfortable in a space with moderate visual complexity—too much or too little visual complexity is unpleasant and makes us feel tense. Our brains also work better in spaces with moderate visual complexity, even when we’re as young as three years old. We also prefer art and visual patterns (say, on wallpaper) with moderate visual complexity.

Spaces that are more than moderately complex energize us. Higher energy levels are better in an exercise area, for example.

“Moderate visual complexity” is a phrase that has no real meaning to the humans on the planet who aren’t environmental psychologists, so examples are in order. A residential interior created by Frank Lloyd Wright has moderate visual complexity. The interior of the Meyer May home, designed by Wright, is moderately complex visually, and so is Taliesin in Wisconsin, another Wright-designed home and one he lived in himself. Images of both of these homes are available online.

If you are trying to create moderate visual complexity, the best way to determine the complexity of a space is to visualize one of Wright’s residential interiors, or another a space known to have moderate visual complexity, and then mentally compare the complexity of the two. This may sound like a dubious way to proceed, but it works.

The number of patterns on surfaces makes the single largest contribution to how visually complex a place is. To manage complexity, all of the patterns in any room or other defined space should always use the same select set of colors. Patterns used together should all feature the same few shades of brown and blue, for example. To qualify as “moderately complex visually,” a space needs to feature just a few patterns: few being two or three if the third is very similar to one of the first two. So, the upholstery on your sofa and your curtains can be patterned, but that’s it. Maybe a rug can be patterned if the upholstery and curtain patterns are very similar—however, no patterned wallpaper. Some PlaceTypes can tolerate slightly higher levels of visual complexity; read on to see if you have one of those PlaceTypes. Patterns that are themselves moderately visually complex feature a limited number of families of hues and shapes, three of each.

Places that are more complex visually also have lots of stuff scattered across their horizontal surfaces. Furniture, which rests on the floor, is some of this stuff. Photographs in lovely frames perched on sideboards, glass sculptures inherited from Aunt Milly, and wonderful artworks created by Teddy in preschool also contribute to visual complexity.

The number of patterns on surfaces makes the single largest contribution to how visually complex a place is.

It’s important that you have things around you that have meaning for you—just not too many of them at any one time. Most of the horizontal furniture surfaces in your home should not have anything on them. Since there are fewer feet of horizontal space in smaller homes than larger ones, and since every room needs a few things that show that it’s yours—photographs, souvenirs from travels, items inherited from your grandmother—it’s not possible to set an exact number of the horizontal furniture surfaces in your home that should not have anything resting on them. To find what level of “horizontal coverage” works best for you, take all of your mementos, photos, etc., off of the tabletops, bookshelves, and so forth in a space. Books can stay on bookshelves, but remove all the other stuff that’s found its way onto the shelves. This process will probably make you feel tense. Start to add back single items to the furniture surfaces one by one, and wait for a minute or so between additions. When you find yourself breathing normally again, stop adding items. You’ve found your object-space happy zone.

Wall art and photographs should not cover more than 50 percent of the wall spaces, not counting the wall space behind furniture. To keep visual complexity in check, when 50 percent of the wall space will be covered, the images shown should be few and simple—a swirl of blue representing a wave, not a detailed painting of that wave showing sea creatures and vegetation, for example. If a detailed image is used on a wall, fewer images should be used and more wall space left blank. Mirrors are equivalent to a very complex image.

Clutter is the stack of magazines you plan to read, the pile of pictures waiting for frames, the reports that need to be filed, and the four sweaters lying across the first chair you pass as you enter your home. It is stuff you want and have good reasons to keep, but that just hasn’t found its way to its where it needs to be. Empty pizza boxes and dishes that need to be washed are trash and cleaning that need to get done; they need to be dealt with for biological reasons.

The reason why clutter is so stressful for humans is because it amps up the visual complexity in our world. Keeping clutter in check is a reason to make sure you have enough drawers and cabinets and to ensure that no one can see what’s in them. If you place something in a drawer or cabinet but you can still see it in its new resting place, you’ve accomplished nothing clutter-wise.

Clutter reduces well-being and degrades professional cognitive performance. People are in better moods in places that are more organized than disorganized. Clutter and visual disorder have an insidious effect. Clutter and disorganization degrade the self-control of all who encounter them as well as people’s ability to follow rules. If you’re trying to avoid the Halloween candy that made its way into your home at the end of October, your odds of success fall with each wayward sock, file folder, and magazine cluttering up your kitchen. If you want people entering your home to neatly stow their coats and boots, make sure there are compartments, shelves, or something similar in place so that your entry space seems orderly. The same is true for laundry rooms—if you want people to wipe up little spills and clean out lint traps, make sure your laundry room is designed in such a way—with cupboards, for example—to make it possible to keep it well-ordered. When we’re in more orderly spaces, we also seem to more thoughtfully evaluate information.

Once you clear the clutter, parts of your home that you haven’t really seen for years will become visible. If they’re bedraggled, un-bedraggle them—nothing’s more demoralizing that living in a place that’s seen better days. Paint walls that are chipped or dirty, add a slipcover over the worn sofa, and introduce a few (not too many, remember the hassle of getting rid of that clutter) throw pillows.

Too little going on around us is as upsetting as too much. Spaces can definitely be too stark for comfort. The environments where we developed our current crop of sensory tools featured multiple colors, a gentle hum of activity, and changing light levels and patterns of shadows, for example. So should the home and workspaces you use today.

Art

Art can give us a positive psychological boost. It can send out messages that let others know what we value about ourselves—while it reminds us of the same things. An historic photograph can signal a longstanding connection to an area, an organization, or a family, and a painting of a seagull can signal an attachment to the sea or animals or sailing, for example. The full set of stuff you’ve added to your home and office determines the messages sent. Art depicting nature was discussed earlier in this chapter during the review of how our ancient experiences influence where we live best now.

Realistic images of nature can to a great extent compensate for the stress we feel being in a space without windows—making them a particularly good choice for spaces such as tiny powder rooms. Realistic nature art has also been linked to enhanced creative thinking.

With art, we prefer the familiar but aren’t very enthusiastic about pieces that are entirely predictable and boring. The same is true for interior and product design and architecture—the familiar with a slight twist is most likely to please us.

All that was reported earlier about how humans respond to colors and shapes also applies to art. Abstract images with more curvy than straight lines in them and which feature colors that are not very saturated but are relatively bright are calming to view, for example. Pieces that have more straight lines than curvy ones with more saturated, not so bright elements are more energizing to view. The research on lines and shapes can be applied to sculpture as well.

Human beings are more likely to think creatively when they’re feeling nostalgic, and art, particularly photographs, can be used inspire nostalgia. When we experience awe—and the same item/view/space can awe us over and over again—we feel less rushed and more satisfied with life, and are more likely to be helpful to others, so an awe inspiring item in a family room or office can be a good addition. Something inspires awe when it is large or exhibits superb workmanship, for example. Art can make us feel awed, but so can an inlay pattern on a floor or a light fixture or the stone on a countertop, for instance.

Materials

Filling your home with natural materials such as wood is good for your body and mind. Seeing the grain in wood de-stresses us. No wonder hardwood floors have been popular in homes for so long. Floors aren’t the only surfaces where wood grain can sing; furniture and woodwork can show it off, too. Seeing real and artificial wood grain has the same effect on us as long as two things are true: the artificial wood is a really, truly good imitation of natural wood, and the repeat pattern in the artificial wood is random enough so that the same distinctive feature, say a simulated knot, is not repeated in the finished floor or piece of furniture in an unnaturally predictable way. Spaces that feature natural wood have randomly distributed patterns in their wooden surfaces; the same randomness needs to be present in any your home or office if you’re using a product with artificial wood grain.

It’s great that seeing wood grain de-stresses us because it can be used in lots of spaces where it might be hard to design in window views or grow plants, such as basements. We are also better able to concentrate in spaces featuring wood. Wood ceilings may encourage people to fall asleep more quickly if light bounces off of them. However, it’s best if no more than 45 percent of the surfaces in an area are covered with wood. With this amount of wood on view, we’re most comfortable and relaxed.

Matte finishes are more relaxing for us to look at than shiny ones, and many natural materials can readily be used with or without a shine.

Matte finishes are more relaxing than shiny ones.

Stones, for example, can be polished or not as desired. So can many styles of tiles and other surface materials. Shiny finishes are, however, preferred over matte finishes.

Information on which materials and finishes off-gas dangerous materials is continually being updated as more related research is done and as new surfaces come onto the market. Visit reliable online data sources, such as the websites of the American Institute of Architects, the American Society of Interior Designers, or the International Interior Design Association for the latest news on healthy materials.

Audio Experiences

Just as professionals travel around with light meters so they can determine how bright a light is, they also have monitors that let them know how loud it is in a space. When sound levels in workplaces get to around forty-five decibels (dB), our lives start to degrade, and, in more public, social situations, the magic volume level that divides happy from stressed listeners is around sixty decibels. How loud is that? The loudness of a whisper or of gently rustling leaves is twenty dB, the sound level in a quiet library is about thirty dB, and that of a quiet room or busier library is forty dB. Forty-five dB is about as loud as a conversation between two people generally gets. The loudness of an alarm clock is eighty dB.

You can influence the soundscapes in your home and workplace by playing music or birdsongs (more on this below) or via rules about who is allowed to talk when. Other soundscape modifications require professionals—for example, adding sound blocking insulation to walls or using acoustic ceiling tiles.

Anything that’s relevant or potentially relevant to what we’re doing is a distracting noise, and since speech can at any time become relevant, it needs to be monitored and is particularly distracting. Meaningful noise degrades cognitive performance.

Sometimes people are told to ignore people around them who are talking or other uncontrollable sounds, such as water dripping. But humans can’t do that—no matter how hard we try. This also seems to be tied to our experiences as a young species, when ignoring others or ignoring a noise might have made us some other creature’s lunch. Since we can’t ignore conversations around us, it can be particularly important to acoustically isolate offices, bedrooms, home spas, and similar areas by placing them at a distance from noisier zones or adding sound insulating materials to the walls around them. Walls that reach to the lower level of the floor above are much more effective at blocking sounds than walls that reach only to a dropped ceiling. The space between a dropped ceiling and the true ceiling in an area is a sound superhighway, a zone that makes a nearly whispered conversation instantly known to all. To effectively manage sound, it’s important to understand when there’s a gap between a true ceiling and a dropped ceiling and block it. Echoes have particularly negative effects on our cognitive performance and social behavior; soft surfaces such as rugs and wall hangings can help keep them in check.

It is not your imagination; random noises (as opposed to continuous or predictable ones) really are the most annoying. If a leaky faucet starts to drip intermittently, you need to stop the noise, even if by just putting a face cloth where the water hits the sink. You cannot ignore the sound or “not let it bother you.” Any random unpredictable sounds in your house or office need to be acoustically isolated so that they don’t destroy the atmosphere you’re trying to create. Make sure, for example, that you can’t hear the printer that springs randomly into action. It can be worth the costs to invest in heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems that don’t make unpredictable, distressing noises or to install sound absorbing materials in and around hobby spaces where people will operate power tools.

The fact that most of us can’t just turn off our ears also means that we need to add background noise to a space where we want to feel good and think clearly. Research has linked particular attributes of sounds with certain mental states. High-pitched sounds (for example, violins) set our nerves on edge, while ones that are lower in pitch, like a guitar, relax us. Music in a major key boosts our mood, while music in minor keys has the opposite effect.

Our hearts beat in time to the soundscape we’re in, and changing the pace at which our hearts are beating is integral to influencing our mood. Faster sounds, whether music or otherwise, energize us, while slower ones calm us. Fast-paced music in a major key makes us feel high in energy and in a good mood, while slower music in a minor key has the opposite effect. We even walk faster when we hear music with more beats per minute. Relaxing music has between 50 and 70 beats per minute, and very relaxing songs like lullabies have 30 to 50 or so beats per minute. Songs with 100 to 130 beats per minute energize us. Not sure how many beats per minute are in the music you enjoy? Google “beats per minute” to find one of the websites that provides exactly this sort of information.

People’s brains do their best knowledge-type work when they’re in a space where the noise has been cut to a quiet background hum that reminds them they’re not the last person on the planet but the words other people are saying aren’t clear or loud enough to be understood; this is similar to a relatively quiet office while wearing headphones but not listening to music or anything else through them.

White noise blocks distracting background sounds, while pink noise calms us. Examples of each of these kinds of noise are available online at Wikipedia, and each can be added to a space via online services, as well. White noise has been shown to boost our cognitive performance compared to how well our brains usually work when listening to office type noise.

If white or pink noise, which get their names because of the patterns in their sound waves, seem a little institutional to you, there are other options. It’s psychologically better to listen to music you like than music you don’t like, but if the people who use a space have very different music preferences, go with classical, nonvocal music, as it’s universally positively—well, or at least not negatively—received. Scientists have also learned that when we hear the sorts of birdcalls, gentle water movements, and rustling wind noises found in a temperate zone meadow on a lovely spring day, we immediately feel calmer. These sounds also help us restock our mental processing power after we’ve depleted it doing knowledge work. Playing nature sounds may sound silly, but it’s proven effective in a range of spaces, from doctor’s waiting rooms to workplaces to living rooms. Restful and rejuvenating meadow soundtracks are available online.

Don’t try to create a place that’s completely quiet or quieter than we’d expect—that’s just as unnerving to humans as one that’s too noisy. Concentrate instead on having the right sorts of sounds fill a space, the ones that help you create desired moods.

The soundscape in your home can, and should, be actively managed. What sounds do you like to hear? Birds singing? Street vendors from Marrakesh? Mozart? The sounds outside your home? Are you one of the few people who isn’t driven crazy by the sound of wind chimes? Set up a sound system so you can listen to what you enjoy hearing when you’re hanging around at home. Modify your soundscapes so that being inside your home is a different experience in the morning, afternoon, and evening, and at different times of the year.

Scents

Rigorous scientific research has linked particular scents to certain psychological states. It is possible to disperse aromas through a space in multiple ways. Essential oils can be wicked into the air, for example, and scent dispensers can be incorporated into HVAC systems with a professional’s assistance.

Smelling pleasant scents has been shown to boost mood.

The scents listed below have their noted effects whether the people smelling them are aware of them or not; the effects linger after the smell fades from perception. The amount of any smell that should to be added to a space needs to be determined via a straightforward onsite experiment, because things like window drafts, exact room volumes, and how well a ventilation system works all have a dramatic effect on whether a particular amount of an odor can be smelled. To conduct the required experiment: dispense a very small amount of an odor into a space. If anyone who enters the area mentions the smell, the amount used needs to be reduced. Ask people who come by about their experiences of being in the space, and cut back the amount of scent in use if it is brought up. Even at the same concentration in the air, some scents are more pungent than others, so each scent needs to be tested individually.

•Smelling pleasant scents has been cross-culturally shown to boost mood. As discussed earlier, when we’re in a more positive mood, we’re better at problem-solving, thinking creatively, and getting along with others. Pleasant smells reduce stress, and unpleasant smells have the reverse effect.

•If a place is pleasantly scented, we feel we have spent less time there and that it is larger than if the space is unscented.

•A pleasantly scented space seems cleaner and brighter.

•We linger in spaces that smell good to us.

•Smelling scents we link to cleanliness has been linked to better behavior and following rules.

•We are also fairer and more generous in spaces that smell “clean” to us, with clean smells being the scents used in cleaning products in our culture. North Americans associate the distinctive smell of Windex with cleanliness, for example. So, cleaning up before company arrives pays off in more ways than you might have thought.

Scientists have also investigated the implications of smelling particular scents:

•Aromas that have been tied to lower anxiety levels include sweet orange (this refers to the oranges we eat), floral scents (particularly hyacinth and jasmine), and vanilla. The smell of ylang-ylang seems calming.

•Relaxing scents include lemon, mango, and lavender.

•Scents linked to increased alertness: peppermint, common garden sage, and rosemary; coffee countered the effects of sleep deprivation in rats.

•Energizing scents are grapefruit, tangerine, eucalyptus, and peppermint.

•The scent of lavender is linked to helping encourage sleep.

•Scents that boost cognitive performance: cinnamon and vanilla; creativity is linked to coffee (even if no caffeine is actually present or coffee consumed) as well as lemon.

•Scents linked to improved memory function: rosemary, peppermint, and common garden sage.

•Scvclerical type work include chocolate and coffee.

•The scent of lemon is linked to improving mood while doing knowledge work.

•Lavender is also linked to trusting other people.

Since scents are tested one at a time in labs, the research supports using a single scent in a space.

Certain smells are particularly important to each of us emotionally. You can’t change your responses to those scents, so use them to your advantage. If you have relaxing associations with the smell of something, use it to scent your bedroom or wherever else you’d like to feel relaxed, whether this text mentions it or not. If you don’t like smelling a scent because you have negative associations with it—maybe your mean Aunt Joan’s house smelled like lemon, so you dislike the smell of lemons to this day—then don’t use those scents in your home or office, no matter what research has said about them. Scent associations can’t be overcome, they just are.

Some people avoid scenting spaces because of allergies. Natural scents can be replaced by artificial ones to overcome this problem. Various brands of artificial scents are made with different ingredients, so you should be able to find one that doesn’t trigger whatever allergies are present.

Smelling the same odor in different places or different times when you’ll be working on a project puts you in the same mindset in these places and times and helps call the same project-related thoughts and details to consciousness in each space and time, which makes your mind work more efficiently and effectively. The same goes for sounds heard and other sensory experiences. If your home office and your workplace at your firm’s headquarters share a scent or other sensory stimulus and continue to do so over time, that consistency will improve your professional performance.

On-Skin Experiences

Scientists have thoroughly probed the ways that our tactile experiences influence how we think and behave.

•How much padding there is on a chair cushion matters in more ways than you might have imagined. People who sit on even relatively slim cushions (about an inch thick) do not drive as hard a bargain when negotiating as people without cushions. The people sitting on the cushions are more flexible—in most families with kids, in particular, cushions all around seem like a great idea. Would you like to make your family meals more pleasant, and discussions of curfews, allowances, and family vacations less onerous? Make sure both parents and kids have cushions between their butts and the dining chairs.

•Researchers have also found that after people touch something that is warm and put it down, they judge others to be more generous and caring than if they’ve just held something cooler, and they are themselves more generous, trusting, and cooperative than after holding something cooler. Body heat warms some materials faster than others, and not all materials retain heat effectively. Metal surfaces heat up quickly but lose their heat quickly. Wood and leather store heat well.

•When felt, smoother surfaces are linked to femininity and rougher ones to masculinity, and touching a rougher surface is more energizing than feeling a smoother one. When various textures are used together, the effect is energizing.

•Smoother metal is associated with being modern, elegant, and comfortable.

•People tend to prefer staying on the same underfoot texture; if they’ve been walking on carpet, they’re unlikely to move off that carpeted path onto vinyl tiles, for example. Changes in underfoot textures signal to humans that they should pay attention, so changing flooring at the top of stairs, for example, or where there is surfacing around a pool deck is a good idea.

•We walk more slowly on carpet than harder floors, so carpet can be a good choice where you want to keep people moving slowly, to view art, for instance.

•People are more comfortable in places with carpet than vinyl floors and tend to spend more time in those carpeted areas.

•Floors that are shiny may be perceived as slippery, whether they are or are not.

Temperature

Thermostats, whether at home or at work, are often battlegrounds. Some people inevitably want to live and work in warmer temperatures and others in colder ones. Science can help resolve these disputes.

•Keeping indoor spaces around seventy degrees Fahrenheit encourages pleasant social interactions.

•Our minds do their best work when we’re in a place that’s sixty-eight to seventy-four degrees Fahrenheit, with humidity between 40 and 70 percent and gentle, almost imperceptible ventilation. There are a number of reasons why this temperature may not be achievable, from energy costs to a desire to save the planet by cutting energy use, but when you have options, it’s good to know what’s likely to work best for the greatest number of people.

•Our hands, feet, and heads are not equally sensitive to heat and cold. Radiant heat focuses heat onto our feet, which makes us feel warmer than if the area around our heads is heated. Air-conditioning ducts up higher do a good job at cooling our heads and therefore making us feel cooler overall.

•It’s important that places where you plan to hang out are in the comfort range

of temperature overall. When we’re comfortably warm (but not hot), we are

more sociable.

•We feel cooler when we’re alone than when we’re with others, so thermostats should be set at higher levels in places where people will spend most of their time alone.

•People are more likely to go along with opinions of others when comfortably warm than when they are comfortably cool, so a family room that’s a little warmer but still in the comfortable range might be a good idea when you anticipate potential family squabbles. The same goes for conference rooms at work where negotiations take place.

•Experiencing relatively cooler (but still comfortable) temperatures has been tied to more emotional decision-making and a tendency to select products based on how pleasurable they are to use. In relatively warmer (but still comfortable) temperatures, our decision-making is more rational and utilitarian arguments prevail. You may want to heat or cool spaces you use accordingly to encourage one sort of thinking or another; you might, for example, vary the temperature based on whether you need to make investment decisions or host a family holiday party.

Right-Sizing

Some spaces seem to be just the right size, others seem too big or too small. We’re less likely to feel stressed in spaces that seem like they’re the right size, which is important because when we’re stressed, our cognitive performance and general well-being are reduced and our mood curdles.

•Lighter colored walls make a space seem a little larger, while darker colored walls make it seem a little bit smaller. If you have a bedroom that’s just too big to feel comfortably cozy, a darker jewel tone on the walls can be just what you need to make the space feel like it’s just the right size. In a tiny powder room, a lighter color on the walls, say a delicate aquamarine, is a better option.

•When a space is a little more brightly lit, it seems a little larger than if the lights are slightly dimmer.

•When a space has a more even distribution of light, it seems larger than if there are variations in the intensity of light in the space, as there are when there are brighter and darker dollops of light on the floor of a room.

•Relatively cooler colored lights (say 4,000K) in a space make it seem a little larger than it does when warmer colored lights (around 2,700K) are used in the same space. If you want a space to seem slightly cozier at some times and slightly larger at others, put different colored light bulbs in different lamps and turn on the ones with the cooler bulbs or the ones with the warmer ones to create the size impression desired.

•Adding a scent associated with a larger, more open space, like the scent of the ocean, to an indoor space makes it seem a little larger, while adding a scent associated with coziness to an area, say the smell of a crackling fireplace, makes the same space seem a little smaller. Adding a smell tied to an open space to a large space can actually make people feel anxious. Adding any scent to a space makes it seem a little larger than it does when it is unscented.

•Installing bookshelves along one wall of a room and then putting only a few things on those shelves will make a space seem larger, even though the book shelves inevitably take up some of the floor space in the room.

•Generally, a space also seems larger when there are more openings such as windows and doors in its walls than when there are fewer. A single window or skylight will make a room seem more spacious. Even very small openings, such as those created when wooden bands are woven together to create interior walls, make a space seem larger.

A single window or skylight will make a room seem more spacious.

•A rectangular room seems larger than a square room that actually has the same number of square feet.