Today, more than ever, there exists an overlap between hospitality and healthcare industries; with the impact being felt in the way hospital interiors are designed. This influence impacts the patient’s experience but focuses very little on the experience of the caregiver. Caring for a sick child takes an emotional, mental, and physical toll on a family. It is especially challenging to care for a sick family member when away from the comfort and security of the family’s private home. This project explores that challenge through the interior design of a space that, for both patient and family, is restorative, healing, and encouraging. It is a space that assists a family in caring for their loved one.

Society has become increasingly segregated by age which lessens the opportunities for communication between generations. Before the Internet, children and adolescents typically learned through traditional means - their parents, school teachers, and life experiences. Adults believed they were capable of recognizing and addressing the needs of children and adolescents. (Strom & Strom, 2012) Now, the global media is widely accessed by people of all ages which gives it the ability to influence a large population in different ways. This has led to children and adolescents being more heavily influenced and educated by the media than other traditional sources. Adolescents, in particular, are more reliant on each other for conversation, feedback, and advice. (Kovarik, 2011) Retirees, on average, are more active now than they were 20 years ago and 54% of seniors (age 60+) are considering working after retirement age (typically 65) which is up from 45% in a 2014 poll. Of the seniors polled, 81% say they will work part-time while 19% say they will work full-time.

This practice-based research investigates floor-based living, focusing upon the realm of Korean everyday life. My particular concern is with the relation of the body to domestic space through memorised rituals, such as cleaning, polishing and removing shoes. The thesis asks the question: how does space determine and respond to such repetitive activity? It traces how the spatial typology of the floor, so important for Korean architecture, has been transformed by changes in such domestic activities. I present a series of design responses that draw upon everyday domestic performance, addressing a number of issues such as ritual, trace and materiality. By developing a spatial practice focusing on the ondol (traditional Korean floor heating) and the dot-jari (floor mat), this research explores territory that is un-theorised and underdeveloped as a subject in a Korean contemporary design context. The floor is a way to explore the wider role of ritual and trace in the construction of symbolic space, and is central to the Korean cultural and spatial identity. My research therefore explores floor-based living as a manifestation of a social practice: one that has spatial consequences. The Korean expression of ilsang ei eisik (everyday ritual) is defined here as a bodily-embedded activity that is inherent within the culture. A series of my spatial installations, such as Trace of Ritual Ceremony (2014), Beyond the Boundary (2015), Invisible Space (2015) and Spatial Extension (2016), deal with issues of transience, warmth, comfort and tactility, locating my everyday performance in architecture or public space. The gathering of dispersed visual research materials is a significant part of my methodology, and the research has involved compiling and editing images into the thesis in order for it to be conceived as a visual archive.

MOTIVATION Mindfulness is the active pursuit of focused attention, and through practice has been shown to benefit psychological and physical well-being. While mindfulness is not a new idea, it has only tangentially been linked to Interior Design such as through performative objects (Niedderer, 2007 and 2014) which promote personal reflection before enacting a choice. If mindfulness is the active pursuit of mental presence, then Attention Restoration Theory (ART) is a passive route by which environmental cues imbue a resurgence in attention capacity (Kaplan, 2001). ART studies exemplified successful restoration through scenes of nature, and unsuccessfully in outdoor urban scenes (Berto, 2005) while interior environments went unexamined. Encouraging mindfulness and ART through interior design is worth exploring as it converges from the studies of Niedderer, Kaplan, and Berto. PROBLEM How can mindfulness be supported by, or achieved through interior design, and what design principle(s) align with the practice of mindfulness? How can interior spaces and artifacts facilitate ART to passively or unconsciously support mindfulness in a residence? METHODS Evaluations of mindfulness and ART case studies as related to design, and environmental interpretation will inform associative aspects to understand and employ relevant design elements. RESULTS People prefer different spaces in which to experience mindfulness where the variety of colors, sound levels, lighting, privacy, smells, and textures affect them to be attuned. Based on an site interview, the designer is informed on specific interaction styles, design attributes, and solutions to pursue. Questions prompting personal reflection will lead to a personalized design which was determined to be an important psychological tool to achieving mindfulness. The use of warm and cool colors were found to be more intriguing than achromatic settings. Placing design artifacts in the space which encouraged or even required interaction from the client were found to encourage their mental presence in the moment as well. Views to outdoor, natural scenery from the space or at a minimum objects that represent nature add to the presence of mind and attention restoration. The designer educates the client on the impact of pertinent design principles such as light, color, scale, balance, texture, and harmony to obtain design by-in. REFLECTIONS/CONCLUSIONS Creating a mental and physical connection for the client to the space is essential to achieving mindfulness through interior design. Mindfulness and Attention Restoration Theory augment each other from different psychological and physiological positions when the client is actively and passively engaged with their surroundings; linking the two through interior environments is key. A designed residential space that reflects the inhabitant’s interactive tendencies, prompts exploration, requires choice, and arouses intrigue will promote mindfulness, and attention restoration. Incorporating textured surfaces, natural materials, interactive objects, and purposeful views are important design goals. 1. Niedderer, K. (2007). Designing Mindful Interaction: The Category of Performative Object. Design Issues, 23(1), 3-17. DOI: 10.1162/desi.2007.23.1.3 2. Niedderer, K. (2014). “Mediating Mindful Social Interactions Through Design.” The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of Mindfulness. Ie, A. (Ed.). Chichester, UK: John Wiley & Sons. 345-366. DOI: 10.1002/9781118294895 3. Kaplan, S. (2001). Meditation, Restoration, and the Management of Mental Fatigue. Environment and Behavior, 33(4), 480-506. DOI: 10.1177/00139160121973106 4. Berto, R. (2005). Exposure to restorative environments helps restore attentional capacity. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25(3), 249-259.

This thesis investigates drinking water quality and the ways in which our built environment can be used to as a tool to alter or confront perception through the violation of expectations. Research indicates that the design of public interiors could be a key component in regulating healthy urban ecologies. Desire to understand the opposing needs of two user groups – the skeptic and the advocate – led me to research design prototypes that prioritize the unexpected as it is manifested in spectacle as underscored through proximity. By abstracting this research, a new hypothetical design is formed in the form of a comedy lounge, water museum, and research laboratory that will evoke inclusivity, collaboration, and surprise. This reimagining of public programs will serve to invite users to be “in on the joke,” as well as, become participants in acts of reckoning, accountability, and conservation for the future of common goods like drinking water.

Thesis (M Design)--University of South Australia, 1996

Thesis (MArch (Prof)(Architecture)) -- University of Pretoria, 2008. / Abstract in English and German. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.F.A.)--Rochester Institute of Technology, 1983. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaf 27).

Thesis (M.S.)--The University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 2009. / Directed by Robert Charest; submitted to the Dept. of Interior Architecture. Title from PDF t.p. (viewed May 27, 2010). Includes bibliographical references (p. 47-48).

Thesis (M.Des.)--Victoria University of Wellington, 2006. / Title supplied. Includes bibliography.