According to Duxbury and Higgins 57% of full time employees reported high levels of stress. Stress is impacting the productivity, health and well-being of individuals, and the bottom line of employers. A growing body of evidence suggests exposure to nature, nature-based features, and biophilic design may offer a solution to reducing stress in the office workplace. This thesis brings together a comprehensive body of information drawn from the neurosciences and environmental psychology, including attention restoration theory (ART), psycho-evolutionary theory, Kellert’s biophilic design elements, and seven case studies, to propose key nature-based interior design strategies for stress reduction in office knowledge workers. Providing direct and indirect exposure to nature appears to have the strongest impact on mitigating the stress response. The importance of the integrated design process (IDP), post-occupancy evaluation (POE), and barriers to incorporating biophilia centred design practices are addressed and process strategies proposed. / October 2015

The present dissertation deals with the artistic collaboration of a married couple, Charles Rennie Mackintosh and Margaret Macdonald. Living in Glasgow at the turn of the century, theeå, Swedeny concentrated their work on interior design. However, artistic collaboration has been neglected by traditional art history, with its concentration on individual creativity. For the couple in question, this has meant that the work they created together has been mainly attributed to Mackintosh, thereby relegating Mac­donald to the role of spouse and assistant, rather than co-creator. The present disser­tation presents a different picture of the couple's collaboration, challenging and revi­sing our cultural perceptions about the creative abilities of the respective sexes. A selection of interiors created by the Mackintoshes is studied in order to shed light on their collaborative efforts. The analyses embark from the perspectives of «masculine» and «feminine» in order to show how the Mackintoshes created artistic wholeness in their interiors, while at the same time opening up the spaces for a mixture of actors, i.e. making the rooms accessible to men and women alike through their designs. During this epoch, the concepts of «masculine» and «feminine» were employed as natural points of reference in an attempt to explain social and cultural phenomena scientifically. The Mackintoshes made use of the era's conventions when creating interiors in the accepted division of masculine (hallways, dining rooms, libraries) and feminine (bedrooms, salons) spaces. However, with time they began to combine these accepted gender forms in order to create something new and modern. Just as the Mackintoshes could create more powerful works of art by combining their respective artistic talents, their spaces could accrue greater significance through the combination of masculine and feminine principles. / digitalisering@umu

The current generations of children are being taught in schools which are not relevant to their daily lived experiences. “Schools and the curricula that exist today are more suited to the needs of the industrial age than those of the information age” (Yelland, 9). As a result, students are becoming disengaged from the learning process. The vast permeation of digital media into our surroundings and a shrinking global society demand a new typology in learning environments. This typology must address students' creativity, social needs, and the importance of community and sense of place. How can these needs be met through the incorporation of technology – often controversial and deemed isolative and disconnecting? Can technology be used as a social tool to create healthy and productive learning spaces? This proposal responds to these questions by presenting a conceptual re-design of an elementary school in Winnipeg. The supporting theoretical framework outlines literature which examines education, technology and society, and space and place. Workshops and interviews with students and teachers are analyzed, and design precedents, strategies and methods are discussed. Collectively, the theories, concept, and research presented provide insight into the creation of an interactive, flexible, and community-focused learning environment.

My Interior Design practicum is an inquiry about the nature of urban informality through the study of present and emerging urban vernaculars within Kambi Moto, an informal area in Nairobi Kenya. I argue that unique vernacular characteristics manifest in everyday living and can be captured through the experience and knowledge of self-builders, entrepreneurs and dwellers within informal settlements. An understanding of these vernacular characteristics is instrumental in the designing of meaningful and effective social housing prototypes. The main methods used to document vernacular characteristics include, post occupancy evaluations (POEs), time diaries, photographs and observation. Within an interior design context, these tools helped describe the spatial needs, wants and desires of the everyday dwellers of Kambi Moto. The four resulting compact housing configurations support one-to-ten member households with provisions for a home-based business (HBB) or a rental unit. All units have an adaptable rooftop with a garden.

Several dancers travel to different cities as their careers performing ballets for audiences nationally and internationally. However, their constant travelling does not allow the dancers to gain a sense of place or form a connection with the cities they visit. The objective of this practicum project is to address this issue by producing an ideal environment that is designed for the dancers needs. This will be achieved by analyzing the role of interior design by proposing a Short Term Residence for Travelling Dance Professionals visiting the city of Winnipeg. The design project is a new typology where dancers coming to Winnipeg have the opportunity to stay in one location that will provide housing, dance rehearsal space, and most importantly an opportunity for collaboration and creative synergy to occur. The theories I will investigate are, the Significance of Place and Community, Collaborative Social Environments, and Performance and the Body in Space.

The current generations of children are being taught in schools which are not relevant to their daily lived experiences. “Schools and the curricula that exist today are more suited to the needs of the industrial age than those of the information age” (Yelland, 9). As a result, students are becoming disengaged from the learning process. The vast permeation of digital media into our surroundings and a shrinking global society demand a new typology in learning environments. This typology must address students' creativity, social needs, and the importance of community and sense of place. How can these needs be met through the incorporation of technology – often controversial and deemed isolative and disconnecting? Can technology be used as a social tool to create healthy and productive learning spaces? This proposal responds to these questions by presenting a conceptual re-design of an elementary school in Winnipeg. The supporting theoretical framework outlines literature which examines education, technology and society, and space and place. Workshops and interviews with students and teachers are analyzed, and design precedents, strategies and methods are discussed. Collectively, the theories, concept, and research presented provide insight into the creation of an interactive, flexible, and community-focused learning environment.

My Interior Design practicum is an inquiry about the nature of urban informality through the study of present and emerging urban vernaculars within Kambi Moto, an informal area in Nairobi Kenya. I argue that unique vernacular characteristics manifest in everyday living and can be captured through the experience and knowledge of self-builders, entrepreneurs and dwellers within informal settlements. An understanding of these vernacular characteristics is instrumental in the designing of meaningful and effective social housing prototypes. The main methods used to document vernacular characteristics include, post occupancy evaluations (POEs), time diaries, photographs and observation. Within an interior design context, these tools helped describe the spatial needs, wants and desires of the everyday dwellers of Kambi Moto. The four resulting compact housing configurations support one-to-ten member households with provisions for a home-based business (HBB) or a rental unit. All units have an adaptable rooftop with a garden.

Several dancers travel to different cities as their careers performing ballets for audiences nationally and internationally. However, their constant travelling does not allow the dancers to gain a sense of place or form a connection with the cities they visit. The objective of this practicum project is to address this issue by producing an ideal environment that is designed for the dancers needs. This will be achieved by analyzing the role of interior design by proposing a Short Term Residence for Travelling Dance Professionals visiting the city of Winnipeg. The design project is a new typology where dancers coming to Winnipeg have the opportunity to stay in one location that will provide housing, dance rehearsal space, and most importantly an opportunity for collaboration and creative synergy to occur. The theories I will investigate are, the Significance of Place and Community, Collaborative Social Environments, and Performance and the Body in Space.

Contract furniture which is manufactured depending on the client&amp / #8217 / s design or specification requirements on a contract basis is executed in small and medium sized furniture companies in Turkey. This one-of-a-kind production organization provides component manufacturing opportunity to furniture SMEs via subcontracting. In this study, the use of design consultancy is investigated to understand how it should be used in the current organization, in order to implement this production system efficiently. This study also examines contract furniture production to have foresight for the development of furniture SMEs in Turkey. In a literature review, the generic context of contracting activities in relation to design activity is investigated. Methods of design consultancy use in product development processes are searched. Design consultancy in construction industry is examined Data about design and production capabilities of Turkish furniture SMEs is collected. Production planning processes of a contract furniture company was investigated and discussed in a case study. These two groups of data were compared in order to drive conclusions.

This research reports on a project concerned with the relationship between the person and the environment in the context of achieving a contemplative or existential state – a state which can be experienced either consciously or subconsciously. The need for such a study originated with the desire to contribute to the design of multicultural spaces which could be used for a range of activities within the public and the personal arena, activities including contemplation, meditation and prayer. The concept of ‘sacred’ is explored in the literature review and in primary interviews with the participants of this study. Given that the word ‘sacred’ is highly value-laden and potentially alienating for some people, it was decided to use the more accessible term ‘contemplative’. The outcomes of the study inform the practice of interior design and architecture which tends currently to neglect the potential for all spaces to be existentially meaningful. Informed by phenomenological methodology, data were collected from a diverse group of people, using photo-elicitation and interviews. The technique of photo-elicitation proved to be highly effective in helping people reveal their everyday lived experience of contemplative spaces. Reflective analysis (Van Manen 2000) was used to explore the data collected. The initial stage of analysis produced three categories of data: varying conceptions of contemplation, aspects of the person involved in the contemplation, and aspects of environment involved in contemplation. From this, it was found that achieving a state of contemplation involves both the person and the environment in a dialectic process of unfolding. The unfolding has various physical, psycho-social, and existential dimensions or qualities which operate sequentially and simultaneously. Two concepts emerged as being central to unfolding: ‘Cleansing’ and ‘Nothingness’. Unfolding is found to comprise the Core; Distinction; Manifestation; Cleansing; Creation; and Sharing. This has a parallel with Mircea Eliade’s (1959) definition of sacred as something that manifests itself as different from the profane. The power of design, re-contextualization through utility and purpose, and the existential engagements between the person and environment are used as a basis for establishing the potential contribution of the study to interior design. In this way, the study makes a contribution to our understanding of how space and its elements inspire, support and sustain person environment interaction – particularly at the existential level – as well as to our understanding of the multi-dimensional and holistic nature of this interaction. In addition, it points to the need for a phenomenological re-conceptualisation of the design/client relationship. In summary, the contributions of this research are: the exploration of contemplative experience as sacred experience; an understanding of the design of space as creating engagement between person and environment; a rationale for the introduction of a phenomenological approach to the relationship between designer and clients; and raising awareness of the spiritual in a holistic approach to design.