Home is Where the Heart is

BY FRANCESCA DI MEGLIO

Emotional design sounds like a meaningless buzz word. Are architects and designers really supposed to care about their clients’ mental health and well-being when building or decorating their homes? The answer: a resounding “yes.”

When Christopher K. Travis, managing partner of Texas-based Sentient Architecture, begins to design a client’s home, the first thing he considers is their “emotional architecture”—the internal system of feelings built by past experiences that make them react to their surroundings in a certain way. “How you feel in [childhood homes] during formative events—good and bad—returns in later homes when features within them remind us of those early experiences,” Travis says.

The notion that the human brain is made up associated memories—what Travis calls “building blocks”—has only recently been put to use in the fields of architecture and design. The goal of Travis’ website, Truehome.net, is to help people create homes that take their sense of well-being into consideration. “A home is a suite of emotional ex-periences,” he says. “Most people think of the sticks and bricks of a space without thinking of how we react to our space.”

Travis oft en spends eight to 12 hours analyzing a client’s responses—including reactions that draw on their values, childhood memories and relationships—to determine how to design a home. He also collects data about their tastes, budget, family system, dayto-day activities and past homes.

The Feresters were one such client, a couple dealing with “empty nest” syndrome. Their goal was to create a country abode that brought the children home to visit, and could also act as a space to host parties for their business clients. “The juke box, pool table and big open space made for parties not only made it a ‘play house’ for the children, but it also gave them an informal flavor of rural Texas culture in which they were raised,” Travis says.

In addition to thinking about where you are in life—from understanding that being a parent is no longer a daily concern to welcoming your first baby home from the hospital—it’s important to consider how you want to feel when you’re inside your home. “Think about activities you do there and the way you feel,” says Donald A. Norman, author of Emotional Design: Why We Love (or Hate) Everyday Things. “Choose things that will make you feel good over time.”

Frank Raymond, for example, wanted a space in his moderate-sized ranch home that would evoke the way he felt as a young boy, when he spent time in his artist father’s studio, which was in a lighthouse. Raymond and his wife, Jean, also spent a lot of time in Europe and were attracted to Old World architecture.

“In response to those and other deep emotional associations from their past, we chose a Tuscan style, which, among other things, allowed a tower that could serve as Frank’s ‘lighthouse,’” Travis says. He also built a kitchen tower, “a symbolic version for Jean to match the bigger tower designed for her husband.” The star light fixture speaks to her fascination with light patterns.

As these examples indicate, emotional design relies on couples working together —and separately—to figure out what their ideal home looks like. The goal is to create a place that reflects each person’s needs and wants, and, to do this, couples must consider their relationships.

Travis tells the story of a married couple that insisted on not having his-and-hers bathroom sinks, yet admitted to arguing about the single sink they shared. Having separate sinks could have easily resolved the problem. People sometimes confuse what they don’t like about their partners behavior with stresses caused by their environment, which is something that can be fixed in the house, says Travis.

There are also some quick DIY fixes that don’t require a professional, like painting—but before undertaking any changes, “people need to understand that they have the power to make a difference,” Travis says.

A self-fulfilling prophecy of sorts, “how you see your home is how it is”; if it’s a mess and you hate it, those feelings will be reinforced as soon as you walk in the door. If there’s something that elicits a bad feeling, just get rid of it. And if there is a color that reminds you of a happy memory, go out and buy a can of paint.

“Just do it,” Norman says. “Don’t think about it. That’s the whole point of emotional design. Thinking is cognitive. Emotion is action.”

Even just changing the bedding and curtains can make a diff erence, says Marc Gobé, author of Brandjam: Humanizing Brands Through Emotional Design.

And what about putting emotional design into practice in public buildings and spaces? Travis isn’t convinced quite yet—but believes it is a possibility. “In a business or public settings,” he says, “you simply change the value system to fit the function of the building. Instead of comfort or relaxation, you may use productivity, power, cooperation, profitability or innovation.”

One of the biggest concerns when dealing with a public space is deciding whose feelings will matter the most—Board of Directors, a percentage of the employees or even a percentage of the customers who will visit the building?

For now, emotional design has found a happy home in residences. By using an individual’s internal “architecture” as the basis for a home, chances are greater that people will find long-term happiness, rather than develop the urge to redecorate every few years. As Travis says, “We help people become aware of choices they are making unconsciously so that they are able to make conscious choices that are more eff ective in terms of lasting value.”

Emotion Exam

Emotional design experts Christopher  K. Travis and Marc Gobé suggest asking yourself these questions— and giving honest answers—before embarking on any changes involving décor, paint color and furniture.

What feelings do I want to inspire in the various parts of my house? And how can I achieve those feelings?

Where have I been happiest and what elements can I bring from that place?

What elements will be pleasing to me, my spouse, my children and any other occupants? How can we integrate all of our needs and wants and, most of all, our personalities into our home?

Am I creating the type of environment that will welcome me home after a hard day’s work? If not, how can I make it a more comforting place?

How do specific colors make me feel? How can I use (or not use) those colors as an additional way to evoke emotion?