For in-depth info on the complexity of choosing insulation, read U.S. Green Building Council’s Green Home Guide on Choosing the Best Insulation Delivers Energy Savings

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For example, would you know when you’re in the kitchen, by how acoustically hard the space is, how all the hard surfaces reflect sounds more sharply than say a soft acoustical space? Would you know when you’re in your bedroom, would the most intimate space within your home be the quietest, softest, with the least amount of reverberations, the most acoustically intimate space within your home?

What for instance would the hard surfaced bathroom, sound/feel like if the bathtub were overflowing with all your closet clothing, a comfortable chair crammed into a vacant corner, and your mattress leaning up against the tub – as we were forced to do during a major bedroom carpet installation? For us, there was a sense of congruency, a sense of being held in an acoustical intimate environment that brought a stronger sense of comfort and security to our otherwise minimally clad or naked bodies. If your bathroom were installed with sound absorbing  moisture resistant grass cloth wallpaper, an extra assortment of towels, perhaps even an area rug, think how acoustically comforting it would feel.

While the acoustical environments we live, work and learn in are often subtle and not immediately evident, the impact is profound. The slightest shift in material choices can be heard/felt; either thwarting or supporting desired behavior and sense of well-being.

The acoustical environment is just one of the many ‘stimulotropisms’ designers and you have available, tropisms that we will explore in future articles.

Close your eyes and listen to your world. Think of all the design changes you could make by just using your ears.

“Everything in life is speaking, is audible, is communicating, in spite of its apparent silence.” – hazrat inayat khan -

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“Whitespace,” or “negative space” is the space between elements in a composition. More specifically, the space between major elements in a composition is “macro whitespace.” Micro whitespace, is—yes, you’ve guessed it—the space between smaller elements: between list items, between a caption and an image, or between words and letters. The itty-bitty stuff.”

Macro and micro whitespace in the architectural and interior design business is uncluttered space that is defined by objects, the space within our personal environments that allow for optimum efficiency of use. As graphic design whitespace influences the readability and feel of a business card, for example, so too does the effectiveness and feel of your personal environment  influence, through the powerful connection between space and behavior, your performance, life and sense of well-being.

One must wonder, of course, whether the absence or presence of whitespace in one’s home, office, or classroom (as just three examples) has anything to do with the whitespace within one’s life, the space/time to do absolutely nothing if one chooses.

Do you, for example, have effective whitespace in your personal environments to take some whitespace-time to pause and reflect on life’s many challenges? the right amount of space and ‘silence’ between the ‘notes’ of your life?, the ‘pause that refreshes‘?

At my son’s recent parent/teacher monthly group meeting, the topic of whitespace was briefly explored, all of us parents agreeing there seemed to be more whitespace in our remembered childhoods and for our parents than there is in this frenzied life we and our children currently live.

The focus of our parent/teacher evening was to share what a typical day or week was like in our lives, and what anchored our disparate daily activities. Many of us said it was dinner time, for some it was school time around which everything else revolved, some pointed to sports (for my family it is my son’s hockey practices and games), some mentioned reading to each other, some musical instruments. The anchor was unique to each family.  Some families even had multiple anchors.

Afterwords, while reflecting on the evening’s discussion – the long drive home often serving as a time to think,  it occurred to me that the common anchor missing for all of us, and perhaps the most important anchor, is the whitespace within our lives to sit and do nothing, to pause in silence, to reflect and receive the blessings of nothingness.

Years ago, while slaving over a college design project with a looming deadline, my professor attempted to redirect my supposed daydreaming towards what all students were suppose to be doing – what all others were doing, ‘WORKING’ on the project. Remaining in silence for a few seconds, I challenged him with something close to: “I am working… in silence, taking the critical pause, the space between the notes, to reflect upon the project, seeking the best solution, by tuning in to the music I am composing, the architecture we’ve been taught to see as frozen music.”

So, perhaps what is so desperately needed in these challenging and uncertain times is the effective anchor and use of whitespace – the silence that brings a bit of harmony into the equation and, by extension, better life choices, a more resilient way of living on this finite planet of ours.

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Or better put, it’s an inside/out job – the approach to any truly successful work-of-architecture.

While the outside and inside ‘look’ or style is important, it’s ultimately about what it _feels_ like. And what your home, office or child’s classroom feels like has everything to do with whether design decisions are responsive to the inhabitants’ desired goals and feelings for themselves, relationships, family, community and the planet.  While meeting square foot functional needs are relatively easy, there are many examples of buildings that are a testament to this square foot approach to design, who you are and who you are becoming is the ultimate ‘inside job’ to creating personal environments that truly support your soul.

For additional reading on the powerful connection between our personal environments and behavior, check out A Pattern Language .

“We become attuned to constant stimuli. A sequence of spaces with unwavering similarity tends to move into the background of our perceptions. Sometimes this is desirable, often it is not. Compression/Release is a change in the experience of space by a physical spatial impact upon the senses.

A very low ‘ceiling’ (overhead plane) or a narrow ‘hallway’ suggests a compression on our perceived experience. Immediately upon entering a higher ceiling plane (as we cross a threshold for instance) the senses are released to explore the now relieved volume. Compression/release is like wearing a pair of slightly too tight shoes. We slowly adapt to the shoes and are not really aware of their impact upon us until we take them off, often with a well-deserved sigh of relief.

This isn’t to suggest that space become unpleasant, and then more pleasant for contrast, but that spatial use is more a participant in the overall experience. Movement through a compression/release sequence may be compared to a massage in which muscles are compressed by educated hands and then released into relaxation. A constant pressure would become tiresome to muscles and sensation.

Lowering the ceiling and the experience of the closer wall in a hallway before entering a small bath space, may change the size experience of the bath space to appear larger by comparison to the hallway.

Leaving the bathroom we move back into the lowered and wall/compressed ‘hall’ for a moment or two, until the compression is sensed, and then we enter the larger public space – and again the release is felt. In this way a well-conceived environmental sequence massages us all day in an ever-re-stimulating play of volume series experience.

In this way the compression/release sequence has a powerful impact on response and can aid in the development of work-or-architecture events.”

an excerpt from by SpaceTherapy® co-founder, Roger Richmond’s book, Manipulating Spaces – What We Do To Them and What They Do To Us. Copyright ©1997 – Purchase of this book is available upon request.

Not only can there be a physical compression/release, there’s also available a photo and acoustic aspect. Light and cool colored surfaces, for example, seem to recede. Dark and warm surfaces seem to advance. Painting the walls in your entry space a darker and warmer color than your living room will increase the feeling of being ‘hugged’ upon entering, and released as you move into your living room. Painting the entry ceiling a darker and warmer color than the same height ceiling in the living room will increase the compression/release experience,  and also cause the living room ceiling to feel higher than it’s actual overly compressive height.

Similarly, moving from an acoustical soft space into a harder/sharper space will be experienced as a good compression/release massage.

Think also about how the effective placement of furnishings can create a compression/release spatial massage that adds a soul enriching experience to your daily life. More on these interior design techniques and how they inform ‘sticks and stones’ architectural design decisions will follow in future blogs.

Whether you’re standing, sitting, lying down and consciously aware of it or not, your personal horizon line falls parallel to and at the elevation of your eyes above the ground plain. Where the water and the sky meet when at the beach for example, while the only horizon line in sight, is shared by you reclining on your beach chair and by your nearby children playing freesbie. One common horizon line, different perspectives – a life lesson in itself!

So what’s wrong with this picture hanging effort? Is she holding the picture at that level to read the title and artist’s name at the bottom? Likely not! She, a museum curator no less, and her assistant (off stage right) are hanging art the way most of us do, unless, that is, we step into the third dimension.

As mentioned in my Jan. 1 “Difference Between a Building and A-Work-Of-Architecture – a room and a space” blog, a building is about square feet (2D reality) while a-work-of-architecture is about cubic feet (3D reality).  And so it would be expected that within ‘a-work-of-architecture’ you’d find horizon line art, the 3D way of hanging pictures. Keep in mind, though, this 3D picture hanging approach does not require a-work-of-architecture, but can easily be accomplished in any ‘building’ – your home, office, classroom, home schooling space, or any space where there’s a wall for a picture

So what IS wrong with the above 2D picture hanging?

Firstly, it’s well above the level cone of vision of an average height person, the center of which is approximately 5’4” above the floor, perhaps the precise height of her cone of vision, her eyes.

Secondly, the glaring reflection of the ceiling light fixture will be visible to almost anyone standing within effective viewing range of the picture hung where being proposed.

And thirdly, and related to the focus of this blog, is that it’s being hung without any regard to the merits of ‘Horizon Line Art’ (HLA). How different the experience would be if she lowered the picture so it’s very strong horizon line were aligned with the bottom of the ‘overlaid arrow’, down to her eye level. HLA at work!

Often, though, the nearest pre-installed nail will suffice, right?  Come on admit it!  Okay, perhaps you’ve got some help: “Honey, how’s this”? “Yah, great”, often the reply, perhaps from the man of the house, as the picture hook is hammered into place.

What the above photo and perhaps your own personal picture hanging approach have in common is the 2D ‘arrangement’ method, no different than a 2D graphic design arrangement of pixels. Whether the museum’s curator is consciously aware of it or not, her picture location choice is in response to either that existing ‘nail’ or to various other vectors such as: the location of the floor, ceiling, partitions, partition area and perhaps even other art work hanging nearby; all these ‘objects’ influencing where and at what height she hangs this particular picture – a great picture, BTW, for the implementation of HLA – the 3D approach.

Years ago SpaceTherapy® co-founder, professor of architecture, world class stained glass artist and three dimensional (3D) photographer and long time friend, Roger Richmond, was sharing with me an image of a Japanese rock garden, viewed through a hand held viewer with it’s own built-in light source – a perfect set of conditions for maximum viewing experience of any 3D image.

While viewing three-dimensional projected images through those multi-colored 3D glasses is a fairly standard and impressive visual experience, the hand held viewer is supreme!

If the user of that hand held viewer is paying close attention, he or she can place their body and camera orientations in the same position as that of the photographer of that image. The ground plain you will be standing, sitting, knelling or lying on (image communicating cues guiding your choice) will merge and become one with the ground plain viewed in the image.  At that very precise moment of seamless congruency you will be pulled into and become one with the image – no different than the visceral experience the photographer was having.

On that day, with that particular rock garden slide, it happened when I was lying belly down with elbows supporting the hand held viewer. The experience was startling and profound. I was one with the scene.

It was also the day my consulting and residential design clients started to benefit from the merits of the HLA approach to picture hanging – a technique that honors the perceiver while also providing a ‘virtual window’. Think of the possibilities for those window-less office cubicles and hospital rooms, or for transforming a boring ‘room’ into an enriching ‘space’.

So how precisely does this work?

Give it a try. Gather artwork that has a fairly well defined horizon line or vanishing point. Choose which pieces you wish to use per room, which if hung at the right height, will support the primary body position for that room’s function. A living room, dining room or office is primarily about sitting; entries, hallways and kitchens are about standing; where bedrooms and your favorite couch-potato couch are about reclining. Remember, the picture’s horizon line must be at the same height off the floor as your eye level, whether you’re lying down, sitting or standing. Enjoy!!

So in addition to the curator lowering that picture, explore what it feels like to install your own favorite strong horizon line picture at your eye level per normal body position for chosen space; or the hanging of that eagle picture up high and the flower image down low where they were relative to the photographer.

Whether for morning lounging in bed, working at your home office desk, or greeting guest at the front entry, there’s an HLA opportunity – a way of taking another step towards breaking free of the box, of creating a more permeable connection between one’s inner ecology and one’s outer ecology; in the space where those two worlds meet, your ‘personal environment’ – another topic for a future blog.

Next week’s blog will probably explore creative techniques for using existing furnishings to create a good spatial massage, a compression/release experience as you move room-by-room through your home or office.

Let me know your thoughts or questions.

Cheers, Terry

P.S. I have decided to do only one blog per week – hopefully on Wednesday’s (one day late this week); what was I thinking when aspiring towards three per week, when I, probably like you, need some white space in my life – another topic for a future blog, ‘white space’ and the art and science of de-cluttering.

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“There are an estimated 18.8 million adults in America diagnosed with some type of depressive disorder. Not only that, but pretty much everybody will experience mild depression in their lifetime. One way to support a healthier mental/emotional state is being in a house where you feel “safe, secure, and relaxed,” said Jane Williams, Coordinator of Clinical Services for ServiceNet Inc. in Massachusetts. “The impact of your space on your over-all mood is really important,” she said.

Williams, who visits most of her clients in their homes, and has worked extensively on her own house, has become very aware of how we are affected by the place we live in. She gave a personal example of being stuck in the kitchen while her family was enjoying a gathering or television show. “My solution was to cut a hole in the wall. Now I don’t have to feel left out of my family’s activities when I’m cooking,” said Williams.

What is one of the number one depressive element you might have in your house?

“Clutter,” said Williams. “It’s not so much about how clean your house is. It’s more about what you face when you walk in the door every day.” Williams added that having clutter, unpaid bills, etc. face you every time you come home “can put you right over the edge. You are constantly being reminded of things that need to be done. And the people who tend to procrastinate, you’re not fooling anyone, it’s still there.”

William’s solution, and one she uses herself, is to designate a space that can be “uncontrolled,” such as a closet, or drawer, or even a room.” Essentially, if you can organize your belongings, and take unnecessary clutter out of the equation, you are likely to experience less stress, and therefore, less depression.”

Manipulating Spaces -What We Do To Them and What They Do To Us.   
by Professor of Architecture, SpaceTherapy® Co-Founder, and long time colleague and friend, Roger Richmond.                Copyright ©1997 – Purchase of this book is available upon request.

“A ‘Building’ in today’s society satisfies basic requirements in basic ways. A ‘Work-of-Architecture’ may go well beyond the limit of a rudimentary building in acknowledging and providing for the loftier attributes and potential of the human experience.

A building contains rooms. A work-of-architecture contains spaces.  A building will provide a bedroom, whereas a work-of-architecture will provide space to encourage sleep, love-making, reading, intimacy, or staying up late watching the news, without disturbing another.

If the volume supports all the activities, the activities may be encouraged to occur.  If it doesn’t, they may not occur.  Intimacy may be compromised, and lovemaking may become the victim in a room that doesn’t support its occurrence.

There is a qualitative and quantitative difference between a building and a work-of-architecture, as there is a difference between a building-designer and a work-of-architecture-designer.  The former identifies, for instance, size requirements for furnishings and numbers of users as the important yardstick for the idea of a room.  Often the volume standard in a building is really a furniture area necessity, with a bedroom having enough physical square footage for a bed, a dresser, perhaps a chair, and enough ‘free’ room for us to move about easily within it.  If the space is for intimacy in love, design considerations beyond simple survival and area requirements for adequate furniture would become more pressing.

Buildings are frequently limited by the inadequacy of their design to elementary arrangements of the square foot requirements of basic need rooms.  Building designers often produce work based upon data like….

Living room 600 Sq. Ft.
Bedroom 250 Sq. Ft.
Dining room 100 Sq. Ft.

Arrange all these furniture-dictated-sized rooms together so they ‘work’ with sufficient and efficient circulation, make it look like a ‘New Colonial’, or a ‘Post Modern’ or whatever is the in style at the time, and you may call yourself, as numerous people do, a real designer.

This is how many individuals envision their own environments or environments for others.  A room-in-a-building approach may form the basis for their perceptions, preconceptions, and evaluations of what makes for ‘good’ design.
The overall appearance of the building is usually conceived from the ‘outside (appearance) in’ rather than from the ‘inside (content and nature of the activity) out’ – the classic Form Follows Function scenario. (Frank Lloyd Wright, however, felt that form and function are one).  Works-of-architecture ideally grow from the influence of more evolved humanistic needs and goals without the preoccupations and preconceptions of image.  The criteria for a work-of-architecture may look something like this….

Public Space (Living room) – Communication, Interaction, Socializing,
Private Space (Bedroom) – Intimacy, Love Making, Privacy, Retreat, Security, Personalness, Reflection.
Food Space (Dining room) – Communication, Interaction, Sharing, Union, Growth, Socialization.

The building or room designer is concerned with size.  The work-of-architecture or space designer is also concerned with size, and in addition, how the space may support and encourage a greater depth of experience beyond a mere square foot satisfaction.  What would a space look like that supports intimacy? is a question a space designer might ask.  A room designer might state, A bedroom has to be this big…. 

A building is a collection of rooms. A work-of-architecture is a collection of spaces.”

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Wed., Jan. 4th topic: Horizon Line Art as virtual windows for home and office.

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The two twenty minute interviews will explore these five areas in greater detail,  and how many of DwellRight’s space behavior design principles can be applied to existing spaces, using existing furnishings, to better support one’s personal and business goals.

Radio Interview Part One:

Radio Interview Part Two:

Read more here…

An important forum for the field, the content of the journal reflects the scientific development and maturation of the study of environmental psychology. Contributions on theoretical, methodological, and practical aspects of human-environment interaction are included, along with innovative and/or interdisciplinary approaches with a psychological emphasis.