Interior Design and Neuroscience: Should Interior Design programs include courses on the brain?

Should Interior Design programs include courses on the brain?

How much time do you think the average person spends indoors? Maybe you enjoy being outside a lot, so you might say half your time is inside, half of your time is outside. Maybe you don’t enjoy being outside very much, so you might say you spend seventy five percent of your time inside and don’t go outside very often. What about if I told you the percentage was much higher than that? In 2001, a group of university researchers, public and environmental health officials, and representatives of the Environmental Protection Agency conducted a study called the National Human Activity Pattern Survey. This survey found that the average American spends 93% of their time inside enclosed spaces, 87% percent being inside indoor building spaces, and 6% inside vehicles (Klepeis et. al, 2001). That’s a lot of time. The vast majority of your life is going to be spent enclosed in a space.

If you are anything like me, you would hear this figure and think, wow, I hope that there are some kind of professionals who know how to make sure that I spend my life inside space that is healthy and doesn’t interfere with my wellbeing as a human. Well, good news, there is!

Enter the profession of interior design.

When you hear interior design, your first thought may be HGTV and decorating, which is very valid based on what we see in media. However, interior design is so much more. The International Interior Design

Emma Hilt NEUR 2464 Dr. Phillips Op-Ed Article November 8, 2021

Association defines the practice of interior design as the professional and comprehensive practice of creating an interior environment that addresses, protects, and responds to human need(s). It is the art, science, and business planning of a creative, technical, sustainable, and functional interior solution that corresponds to the architecture of a space, while incorporating process and strategy, a mandate for well-being, safety, and health, with informed decisions about style and aesthetics.

IIDA, 2021 The field of interior design is marked by a significant commitment to protecting wellbeing, safety, and health. This manifests itself as being legally liable to building safety codes, building certifications ensuring the protection of human health, rigid material testing requirements to ensure high performance as well as quality of ingredients that make up those materials, and more. But what about interior design curriculum? What are interior design students being taught?

Let’s take a look at an example interior design curriculum from a top ranked interior design program.

This curriculum is nationally accredited, an important step in the process of one becoming a professionally licensed interior designer. Out of the 120 credits required for graduation, the course breakdown is as follows: 18% of credits meet general education requirements, 7% meet history requirements, 10% meet construction and documentation requirements, 45% meet design theory and practice requirements, 2% meet professional practice requirements, 3% meet design research requirements, and 15% meet professional and free elective credits. This program is thorough and prepares designers very well for the industry, but one question

remains: are interior designers taught about how people work?

While certain classes in this example curriculum touch on principles of human behavior and the occasional psychological theory, there is no one class dedicated entirely to how humans operate and function – not from a human behavior point of view, not from a biochemistry point of view, not from a physiological point of view. Now, of course, any student could find themselves interested in this area and take elective classes on these topics, and of course interior designers didn’t choose a career that is all about how humans work, but – do interior designers have a responsibility to go beyond this and at least have some training in the landscape of the human brain? How would a bit of training in the human brain affect the work of interior designers?

Let’s take a 10,000 foot view of the field of neuroscience. Georgetown University describes that neuroscientists “focus on the brain and its impact on behavior and cognitive functions” (Nordqvist, 2020). This field of work has many applications in the scheme of human functioning; drug policy, childhood development, concussions, mental illness,

memory, learning, sleep, socialization, stress, exercise, and more are all topics heavily informed and studied by neuroscientists. In short, neuroscientists are experts on how the human brain works and what it needs to succeed. If we consider how the field of neuroscience might inform the practice of interior design, a lot more possibilities start to open up. How much better would hotel rooms be designed if interior designers understood what it takes for humans to get healthy and beneficial sleep? How much better would childcare centers be designed if interior designers understood how a toddler’s eyes respond to color and shape and what they need for brain development? How much better would student spaces be designed if interior designers understood how learning and memory intersect and what can inhibit that retention of information? How much better would offices be designed if interior designers understood how people relate to each other and what people need to be productive, especially if, let’s say, a global pandemic comes around, forcing people to completely rethink the way they work?

Yes, neuroscience and interior design seem like very distant fields. One field is filled with clinical trials, biology classes, human anatomy, and pharmacological intervention. One field is filled with sketches and swatches, training in how to be creative, and how to tell a contractor what to build. But what if we started to bring them a little closer? What if they started to talk to each other and data from one field started opening up more questions in the other? Interior designers would be remiss if we press forward in our attempts to design for the individual without considering the inherent programming of the individual. As new generations of interior designers are being trained and interior design curricula are being designed, we are left with a thought provoking question: what might happen if interior designers studied how people work?

International Interior Design Association. (n.d.). What is interior design? IIDA. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://iida.org/about/what-is-interior-design.

Klepis, N. E., Nelson, W. C., Ott, W. R., Robinson, J. P., Tsang, A. M., Switzer, P., Behar, J. V., Hern, S. C., & Engelmann, W. H. (2001). The National Human Activity Pattern Survey. Energy Technologies Area. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://indoor.lbl.gov/sites/all/files/lbnl-47713.pdf.

Nordqvist, C. (2020, February 5). About Neuroscience. Department of Neuroscience. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://neuro.georgetown.edu/aboutneuroscience/.

Virginia Tech College of Architecture and Urban Studies. (2020). BS Interior Design For students entering 2021-22 catalogue. Blacksburg, VA.