Design Concepts and Programming Flashcards
Environmental Design Research
-Focuses on theories of the interaction between humans and their environment -Rational design based on scientific research rather than anecdotal evidence or personal philosophy
Evidence-Based Design
-Basing design decisions on credible research that links one or more environmental elements with a desired outcome Ex: research has shown that when patients in hospitals have visual and physical access to nature, they recover faster, have less stress, and require less pain medication
Functionalism
-Places emphasis on providing simple, rational solutions to design problems with out extraneous decoration -Best represented by modernism of early 20th Century (nurtured by the Bauhaus school of design), where interiors were reduced to what was required to meet strict functional needs without necessary decoration
Gestalt Psychology
- Theory of perception founded in Germany, by Max Wertheimer
- Says that humans innately perceive things as a whole so that what is percieved is complete and comprehesible
- Used to develop optical illusions
Grouping
- States that humans percieve separete units in the visual field as a group
- Two or more grouping priciples can operate at the same time
Ex: Proximity, Similarity, Direction, and Context
Proximity
-Objects closest together are seen as belonging together
Similarity
-Brain groups objects of similar shape, size, or color together
Direction
-Objects perceived to be moving simultaneously in the same direction are seen as a group
Context
-Objects are grouped bases on context or past experience, one of the main tenets of Gestalt psychology
Closure
- Also known as form consistency
- Tendency to perceive incomplete forms as complete
Continuity
-Tencency to see a line or shape as continuing in a particualr direction rather than making a sharp turn
Simplicity
- States that people prefer the simplest, most stable organization of forms or the overall structrure of elements in the visual field rather than complex individual parts
- Generally the brain oranizes things into the fewest number of lines or parts
Fire-Ground
- The way people distinguish a form from its surrounding.
- Positive and negative space
Perceptual Constancy
- Observer moves closer or farther away
- Angle of view changes, lighting changes, or other factors change
- Person perceives an object or a space as essentially the same regardless of the exact image on the retina of the eye
Shape, Size, Lightness, and Color Consistency
-People percieve shape, size, light, or color as their original form regardless of point of view, distance, brightness, or lighting
Binocular Disparity
- The eyes are separated by slight distance, the left and right eye have slightly different views of the world
- This gives people the ability ot perceive distance and see three dimensions
Interposition
A distant object may appear to be overlapped and partly hidden by closer object
Linear Perspective
Parallel lines will appear to recede towards a single point in the distance
Atmospheric Perspective
Because there are small particles in the air, more distant objects may appear to be hazy and may even change in color
Texture Perspective
- The density of a texture seems to increase as the distance from the viewer increases
- The texture may be fine grain, as on a fabric or of a larger scale, such as ceiling or floor tiles
Size Clues
-When two objects are the same size, the more distanct one will make a smaller image on the retina than the closer one
Relative Closeness of Objects to the Horizon Line
For objects below the horizon line the closer the objects are to the horizon line the farther away the are.
Cue Inconsistency and Cooperation of the Senses
-Reception from each sense is usd as a cue to provide a message about the environment
Ex: Restaurant with smell of cleaning compound instead of food
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
-Deficiency needs vs Growth needs
Deficiency needs
Level 1- Food, water, minimal bodily comforts
Level 2- Safety, protection
Level 3- Belonging and love
Behavior Settings
-Particular place with definable boundaries and objects in which a standing pattern of behavior occurs a particular time
Territoriality
-Refers to people’s need to lay claim to the spaces they occupy and the things they own
Proxemics
- Developed by Edward T. Hall
- Deals with the issues of spacing between people, territoriality, organization of space, and positioning of people in space, all relative to the culture of which they are a part of
Proxemics - Four Basic Distances
- Intimate Distance- 6 to 18 inches
- Personal Distance- 18 to 30 inches
- Social Distance- 4 to 7 feet
- Public Distance- 12 feet and over
Group Interaction
-Seating arrangement is one of the most common ways of facilitating group interactions
Intimate Conversations- two people will sit across the corner of a table or next to each other
Formal or Competitive Conversations- people will sit across from each other
Where social contact is not desired, two people will take chairs at opposites corners of a table
Form
- Basic shape and configuration of an object
- Can be affected by light, color perception, or other elements
Ex: Cylindrical, flat, square, linear, cube
Point
- Position with no dimention
- Can be any shape as long as its dimension is very small in relation to its background
- One point creates location, two points create a distance and implied direction
Line
- Object or form whose actual or visual length greatly exceeds any actual width or depth it may have
- Convey a strong directional sense and can affect a person’s feeling about space
Horizontal Lines
- Restful, stable, and related to the plane of the earth
- Seem shorter than vertical lines the same size
- Make space seem lower
Vertical Lines
- Strength equilibrium, permanence, and strong upward movement
- Appear longer than horizonal lines of the same length
- Represent lines that extend away from the observer
- Tend to make a space appear higher
Diagonal Lines and Curved Lines
- Most dynamic and often represent movement, either upward or downward depending on slope of the line
- Curved lines related to natural world and human body
Plane
- Form with two dominant dimesions, lenght and width
- Ex: 36x36x1 table top appears planar
vs. 36x36x4 table top appears three dimensional
Volume
- Three-dimensional aspect of interior design
- Objects with volume are perceived as a spatial form having lenth, width, and depth
- Solid volume (positive space)- has mass and appears to occupy space
- Void volume (negative space)- space itself
Shape
- Characteristic of an object or space that defines it as distinct from adjacent objects or spaces
- Ex: Square, circe, or cylinder
Scale
-Relative size of something as related to another element of known size
Human scale- objects and spaces are judged relative to the size and form of the human body
Other judgment of scale occurs when one object or space is seen in relationship with the size of another object or space
Proportion
-Relationship of parts of a composition to each other and to the whole