Everyone has their favourite spaces. Maybe it’s a sanctuary for calm and comfort. Or maybe, as remote working continues to be the norm, it’s a vibrant space that gets your creative juices flowing. With urban populations spending up to 90 percent of their times indoors, the better we feel indoors, the better we feel overall.
As interior designers, we have a responsibility and indeed a privilege, to help shape people’s moods. And even if you don’t follow the ancient Chinese practice of feng shui, there can be no doubt that carefully thought-out interior design can affect our mental state. In fact, Neuroscientists have recently shown the ability of design elements to evoke a positive or negative response in people.
It’s one of our biggest considerations as an interior design agency, indeed one of very first questions we ask a client is ‘how do you want to make the person in their space feel?’ The rest all flows from there.
Here’s three things to think about when designing your office space or home:
Welcoming sunlight
With 45c temperatures engulfing the region, now might not be the best time to mention the importance of sunlight, but for a person’s mental well-being, it absolutely is. Put simply, natural light energizes both a place and people, and numerous studies have indicated that we need it as much to function as we do darkness to be able to sleep. Indeed, long before the invention of alarm clocks, humans body clocks were controlled by the sunrise and the sunset.
As interior designers we must think about how not to create light but decide the best way to use the natural light that streams into our buildings. Whether that’s using objects such as mirrors that reflect light around the space or using neutral tones to amplify the impact of the light streaming in, it is important.
And sunlight doesn’t have to equate to heat, shading options can also balance the need for light whilst also protecting against the summer sun.
Choosing Colour
Just like everyone has got their favourite spaces, everyone has got their favourite colour, and quite often, the two are in sync. Colour evokes feelings, indeed colour therapy goes back centuries, with clear physical and mental effects that have an ability to change entire moods.
It is no surprise then that choosing the right colours is essential in the interior design of a building. Whether that’s bold colours to make people feel energised for a networking space, green hues to make people feel connected with nature, or neutral tones and pastel hues to provide a sense of tranquility for a place of relaxation.
Recently we’ve been using the eye-catching statement red section at TGI Fridays, or added splashes of coral at Slider Code, a modern cuisine and slider hangout in Khobar, Saudi Arabia, to add vibrancy and to encourage social activity.
Embracing nature
Biophilic design was well known before the COVID pandemic, and whilst restrictions have since lifted, I am sure many of us remember the cabin fever that we all felt. Whilst as previously mentioned, humans spend the majority of their times indoors, it’s not something as a species that is natural to us.
And so, to combat this, it is important that we try to help blur the lines between the indoors and the outdoors, making the former feel less restrictive. It should then be no surprise that bringing in natural elements such as earth, water, wood, and fire have been proven to have a positive impact on mental well-being.
In the UAE, we are blessed to be perfectly positioned in between the mountains, desert, and the sea, and it would be foolish of us, not to utilise the gifts that are on our doorstep. Often in our designs, we will use coastal patterns, accents of blue and beige for example, that perfectly blend in with the surroundings. The recently opened Vida Umm Al Quwain is a perfect example of this.
And whilst all this is there to explore, in a city where glass skyscrapers and concrete reign, it is not always obvious. That’s why in particularly in dense urban areas it is important that we try to bring greenery and natural materials in to enhance the overall feel of nature and tranquillity. Indeed there have been numerous studies that conclude plants reduce stress, in addition to the wellbeing benefits they have on air quality.
We are particularly proud of the ‘urban oasis’ we have created at NETTE, the sanctuary within MATCHA CLUB, in the industrial area of Al Quoz, where open spaces combine with tasteful greenery and citrus trees for anyone looking for a moment of zen.
Hasan Roomi, Co-Founder of H2R Design
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