Essays on spaces and the people in them
A door handle, a window view or a quieter place to sit can change how a building is used. These 35 essays introduce particular design ideas, the research informing them and the decisions they invite us to reconsider.
Conditions for Recovery
Views, interruptions and the places we choose to rest: bringing recovery into a spatial brief.
Door Handle as Ritual
The handle meets the hand at every arrival. Its grip, resistance and movement deserve attention.
The Interval Between Floors
How a staircase shapes the journey between floors through effort, duration and view.
The View from the Chair
A window becomes useful through the view available from the bed, desk or chair.
Ceiling Effect
What ceiling-height research offers design, and how different volumes can support a room’s use.
Corner Instinct
Shelter, a view of the room and a choice of position: why the edge can be a good place to sit.
Acoustics of Calm
How speech and reflected sound affect a room’s use, and what an acoustic brief should address.
Material Memory
Materials are learned through touch, wear and association. Choose them for the encounters they will have.
Bringing Nature into the Room
Views, planting and contact with living things: making a nature-based brief specific to its setting.
Threshold Effect
Give arrival enough room: the entrance as a place for changing from one activity to the next.
Silence
Plan a place where quiet is available while life continues elsewhere in the home.
The Subconscious City
Daily routes and access to green settings deserve attention alongside a city’s destinations.
Shadows and Light
Layered, controllable light allows a room to serve different activities and hours.
Fractals
How patterns that repeat across scales open a design question about organised visual detail.
Invisible Boundaries
Furniture, light and routes can organise an open room into places people understand and use.
Scent and Memory
Smell carries personal associations. Materials, everyday activity and ventilation all contribute.
Doorway Effect
Memory research makes the transition between rooms worth considering as part of a task.
Color Temperature
Light changes through the day. Plan its timing, intensity and controls alongside its colour.
Curved vs. Angular Spaces
Curves can contribute beauty and a particular experience of contact or movement.
Symmetry vs. Asymmetry
Use recognisable order and deliberate variation to give a composition clarity and character.
Alcoves
A smaller, sheltered place can add another useful way to occupy a larger room.
Memory Palaces
The method of loci uses an imagined route to organise information; real routes can be made learnable too.
Tactile Surfaces
Give repeated points of contact the attention they deserve, from a rail’s joints to a table’s edge.
Detail at Different Distances
Consider what a surface offers from across the room, nearby and within reach.
Acoustic Shadows
Locate quieter positions by considering the source of sound and the paths it can take.
Geometry of Power
Approach, elevation and distance establish the social terms of a room.
Rooms That Can Change
Adaptable settings and understandable controls let a room follow its occupants’ activities.
Infinite Space
Frame distant and layered views from positions that also offer comfort, shelter and privacy.
The Low-Frequency Building
Investigate the hum and vibration of building equipment through its source, timing and transmission.
Light That Is Comfortable to Use
Check the whole lighting system in use, including dimming, flicker and reflections.
The Cost of Getting Lost
Clear routes and well-placed cues help visitors find their way and reduce interruptions.
Emotional Gravity
Observe where people already gather, then support the activities that make those places work.
Designing What People Notice
Make necessary differences detectable and evaluate changes through the actions they support.
A House That Keeps Its History
Identify the objects, marks and familiar arrangements worth carrying through a renovation.
Spatial Memory
Recognisable places and connections help occupants learn a building and find their way.