Transcripts
1. Introduction: When we look for a
place to call our home, we can easily get distracted by various features that might
not be all that important. The number of bathrooms, balcony size, the size
of the living room, but what many people overlook is that the spaces we choose to live in can influence overall sense of
happiness and balance, and in this class I want to talk about those fundamental elements whose presence or lack thereof can generally make
or break your mood, well-being and overall
sense of happiness at home. Hi, my name is Ana Marcu and I'm a licensed architect living in the beautiful city
of Vienna, Austria. I have a double degree
in architecture, in building science
and technology, and have worked for
over a decade as an in-house architect in various projects
like private homes, office spaces, and hotels. Throughout my career, the one area that I have
been most passionate about has been interior design
because it is a layer of the building that has the power to move us on an
emotional level, and when Dan droid
can inspire us to be the best version
of ourselves. In my role as a teacher, I want to take all these
knowledge and help you design a home that will
inspire you to be happier, healthier, and more creative. My lessons are essentially
divided in two parts. First, I'm going to talk about the science art
because that show how various aspects of
our environment impact our happiness
and well-being. Secondly, I'm going
to talk about the architectural and
interior design elements that can be supportive
or we maximize them. This class is aimed
at people who are looking for a home
to rent or buy and wish to understand
what home features they should be looking at
when selecting a home, they'll most contribute to an overall sense of well-being. It's also great for
people who aren't necessarily looking
for a new home, but we should know what
they should focus on in their home design in order to
maximize their well-being. The class also contains a well-being checklist for you to use and access your home, or you can use it when scouting for new
home or apartment. Many of you have
asked me about what I'm reading and
books suggestions. I do extensive research
for all my classes. If you want to dive deeper
into today's topic, I've left a list of books, research articles and
valuable links that I have used to create this class at the end of the
attach checklist, which you will find in the class project and
resources section. If you love this class, you might also want to check out my class bedroom design for better sleep and a calm home for a more in-depth understanding
of how the design of our environment impacts
overall perception of space and sense
of well-being. I hope that by now you are
excited to take this class. Are you ready? Let's start the class.
2. Class Project: For the class project, I'd like you to use the
well-being checklist in the class project
the resources section, and make an assessment
of your home. Or if you're looking for a home, use it to assess the
homes you are looking at and check how well they can
support your well-being. Based on this assessment, you will find it
easier to decide which home will make you and
your family happy long-term. Share your checklist with
the class and talk about which aspects of your home
you will improve upon. Do share photos if you have any.
3. Biophilia: In this lesson I
wish to talk about nature and specifically
on why and how our relationship
to it is going to fundamentally make
or break our happiness. If you look at the
overall timeline of human evolution at least regarding **** sapiens which
is about 315,000 years, for most of that time
humans have lived in semi-open shelters very much in contact with the
natural elements around. It's only at about the year 500 BC that the Roman
houses were recorded. Unfortunately only the homes of rich people could
be argued that were solid and somewhat resembling the houses today
being made of stone, plaster, and brick. The Roman houses of the average
people were still made of cheaper materials which often collapsed and caused fires, but even if we count
everyone having homes like the rich Romans that will still count as less than one
percent of human evolution. But during this one percent, we have made some
drastic changes to the environments in which
we live which created better roofs to
keep the rain and the snow out would
become better at making glass so we can have better views out without
letting the cold in. We've built higher to allow more people to live in one spot. We've become better
at insulating our homes from rodents and
bugs to prevent disease, but in trying to solve one problem we slowly
created another for ourselves in that we've left nature out almost entirely. Since nature is the
place we have adapted for 99 percent of our pollution, we are a little bit
ill-adapted to the cities and urban environments we have
created for ourselves. Thanks to science, we are only
starting to understand how much leaving nature out of
our lives truly affects us. In 1984, Biologist E. O. Wilson wrote in
his book Biophilia, that humans possess
an innate tendency to seek connection with nature
and other forms of life. As an example, in
2021 in the US alone, about 70 percent of
households have pets, 297 million people
visited national parks, and 700 million people visited
the zoos and aquariums. That's an outstanding number
of people looking for nothing else but to
be close to nature. Since then there have been
numerous studies showing how spending time in
nature helps us relax, improve our heart rate, our mood, our attention, cognition, and even
creativity levels, therefore bringing
nature back in our living
environments is highly important in order to create an overall sense of
well-being at home. Some books you might want
to read on these topics are the Nature Fix: Why Nature Makes Us
Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams and The
Experience of Nature; a psychology perspective by
Rachel and Stephen Kaplan. All the links to the
science articles and books are in the Class project
and Resources section. Finally your home
that offers views to nature or allows for
quick access to nature, like forests and outdoor
recreational facilities, or even a garden
is very important. It might mean looking for
opportunities to turn various corners of your
home into a patch of green, might you add some plants to a flat roof or to a balcony, might you be able to turn a
gray wall into a green wall. Could you place flower pots either inside or
outside your windows? Could you keep pets? Could you create spaces around your home that
improve biodiversity? Could you keep a beehive, or an ant hotel, or maybe create
some bird houses? These are all things
you can do to increase your relationship
to nature at home, but our relationship
to nature is more than just surrounding ourselves
with plants and beings. We experience nature
through all our senses, not just through
our visual sense. If you have all the plants
in the world around you, but not enough light or there
is a high amount of noise, or the space you
live in is so small that you can never cook
a proper healthy meal, then surely we can say
that just having plants around is not enough to
achieve a sense of well-being. In the following
lessons I want to discuss how the design
of your home can influence each of
your senses and what architectural interior
design elements you should focus on in
order for you to achieve the proper sense
of home well-being.
4. Seeing: Light: Welcome back. In this lesson, I will talk about light, its impact on our overall well-being and why to
include design and architectural elements you might have to look for or implement to maximize the amount of natural
light your home receives. I think light is one of those elements that
is so omnipresent, that is underappreciated, and you are only able to see how important it truly is
when it's missing. Because of that, we
might underestimate how important it is when
choosing a home to live in. But our access to natural light is essential
to our well-being because it affects
our circadian rhythm or our internal clock, which influences sleep,
wakefulness, digestion, temperature control,
cell renewal, or mood, and even
our energy levels. In this lesson, I
want to give you a few tips on what
interior design and architectural elements
you will need to focus on the maximize your
exposure to natural light. Make sure to use the
attached checklist to see if you can identify
these elements in your home. One of the more obvious but overlooked ideas when selecting a home that will offer you a maximum amount of
light through the year, is to choose a home that is located further away
from the ground. This is particularly
important in very dense cities where tall buildings are
close to each other, leaving a very long shadow
on the nearby buildings. Particularly in winter, when the sun is located at
very low in the sky. Having a home situated in a higher position
can provide you with those couple of
extra hours of light necessary for your
body and mind balance. This is particularly useful for people who live in the
northern parts of the world where winters are long and the overall number of
light hours are low. If however where you live, summers are long and hot and
winters are welcome respite. Then by all means, a home located in the lower levels of a building
might be what you need. If you live in the
Northern Hemisphere, avoid having windows
located towards the north, you'll never see
direct sunlight. A north direction
is only helpful for kitchens or auxiliary spaces. Sometimes photography studios
like north located at windows due to the lack of
glare on the photography. If you are in the
Southern Hemisphere, in Australia, Fiji, New Zealand, South Africa, your southern part will never receive direct
light from the sun. Your best orientation is
the north because you will receive the most sun
in winter and in summer, the sun will be high enough
to hit the roof eaves or a covered porch thus allowing for rooms to be shaded
and not overheat. The southern
orientation is the most favorable for the
northern hemisphere. Countries in Europe, the US, and almost everybody else. Moreover, the south direction is excellent in winter
because your home can gain some passive warmth from the sun and thus lower
your heating costs. East and West orientations
are tricky because the sun is low to the ground
about the rise or set. If you live in a cold climate, that's fantastic because you can receive some more passive
heating from the sun. If you are in a
warm environment, you will likely not
want more heat. Make sure to use plenty
of blinds and drapes to keep the sun out if you have
windows in that direction. What are other ways to maximize the amount
of light in a home? Removing a wall between two rooms will allow more
light to pass around. Removing fully or partially
the concrete slab between two floors can also make a space capture more light. Tall ceilings are
considered more beautiful and they seem to
create a sense of freedom, but only do this with the support of a
local professional, like an architect
or an engineer. This is not a DIY project. Look for opportunities
to add natural light in smaller and darker spaces
like corridors and bathrooms. Roof lights and
high-level windows are excellent architectural
elements in a home, because they provide natural
light while not taking away the necessary privacy
required in those spaces. If privacy is not an issue, you might also
consider replacing opaque partitions like walls and doors with semi-transparent ones like glass walls or
doors with windows, so that light from one space
may flow into another. Lightweight partition walls
are also great at sectioning an area while allowing the natural light to
flow in the room. Colors can also help
you spread more light. The less natural
light the room gets, the closer to white your
overall color scheme should be. I've also talked about
keeping the number of furniture elements low and using mirrors as a tactic
to spread more light into the room in some
of my other classes. Check my classes, A Calm Home and Color
Psychology for more tips. Now that we know more
about light and how a home can be designed to
offer more or less of it, in the next lesson, I want to talk about the
quality of the air we breathe and what we
can do about that.
5. Breathing: Air: Welcome back. Another
element that is highly underestimated with crucial to our well-being is
the air we breath. The European Environmental
Agency, LinkedIn 2019 alone, 370,000 premature deaths in
Europe to air pollution. Unlike light, we should
have some control over with the amount of windows and
shades you have in your home. The quality of the
air you breath is highly dependent on your
location in the world. The more urban and
dense the location, the lower the quality, the more surrounded
by nature you are, the better the
quality of your air. The most fundamental choice you can make
regarding the quality of your air is deciding where your home is going
to be located. What do you want to check is, does your home city
have low air pollution? Is your home surrounded by
green spaces or is it close to a park and outdoor
recreation facilities? After this, there are
some elements you might consider having or
introducing in your home, which will add a slight
improvement to the quality of the air but they are not as
deciding as the location. The first is to introduce as many plants in your
home as you can. In another class of mine called Bedroom Design
for Better Sleep, I talked about a NASA
study showing some of the best plants
at cleaning the air. Here's the list again. That study was
conducted in 1989. The more recent
study from 2019 by the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental
Epidemiology shows that wild
plants are indeed good at removing
toxins from the air, they do that very slowly and you do need quite a high number of plants per square meter to see some overall air
quality improvement. Still, plants do more for us
than just cleaning the air. That should not deter
you from having plants. But if you're
wondering if having an air purifying system is
better than having plants, then the answer is, it depends. Plants are very good at removing volatile organic
compounds or VOCs, which are chemicals
and gases that are smaller than 0.3 microns. They're generated
by paint varnishes, composite wood products, cleaning products, cosmetics, and so many other things. The general HVAC system and
air purifiers are typically good at removing
particles that are bigger than 0.3 microns like pollen, dust, smoke, and pet hair. They typically are much help against volatile
organic compounds. They're currently aren't yet many widely accessible
technologies that have the same VOC fighting
technology as plants do. But I'm sure this will
change very soon. Both plants and air purifiers bring their own contribution
to air cleaning. Based on your needs, you might consider
one option or both. The other element you need
to consider is ventilation. Poorly ventilated
spaces are also known to cause their own set of
symptoms and illnesses. Something that you might want to check on homes that you wish to rent or buy is if there
are two opposing facades. That way you can
cross ventilate, which is one of the best
ways to ventilate the home. The other way
professionals recommend to ventilate is to
stack ventilate, which is the air exchange
between a window on one facade and a higher
located window on another. Opening a window gives us a direct connection
to the outside world. It's a great way to
let nature come in. The sensation of breeze against our skin
will cool us down, making us happier in
hotter temperatures. The smell of rain, flowers and natural
frequencies are also shown to becoming
and stress-reducing. I have a whole class about this topic called
Room Fragrances, if you want to know
more about how fragrances influence your
perception of space, and our well-being make
sure to check it out. We talked about light
and air quality, I want to talk about how we can strengthen our relationship with nature to the
textures around us.
6. Touch: Textures: When it comes to creating more
well-being for ourselves, part of our design should
also include a diverse array of natural materials that can stimulate our
sense of touch, much like our natural
environment does. Industrialization
cost constraints and many safety regulations have
led to the widespread of non-natural flooring
and plasterboard walls that are chemically produced
and completely flat. Our sense of touch is essential
when creating a sense of comfort in the home and a sensory stimulation
like the one of touch, has been shown to reduce stress, improve mood, and
enhance attentiveness. This is why I'm against
recommending wallpapers that mimic natural textures because while they might
deceive our eyes, they do not mislead
our sense of touch, so pick abstract motifs
for your wallpapers and bring natural materials into
your home anytime you can. If you want to know more
about this checkout, the book Joyful, The Surprising Power
of Ordinary Things to Create Extraordinary Happiness
by Ingrid Fetell Lee. For our overall home well-being, we should bring
textures in our home that mimic nature in two ways. They provide various types
of tactile stimulation in our environment and they are
made from natural materials. In another class
called a Hygge Home, I talked about using natural
materials like solid wood, weaker, and ceramic to create a sense of coziness and comfort. In this lesson, I don't
wish to repeat myself, but give you some
additional examples of natural materials that can also provide you with an
exciting texture to touch. One natural material you can use when building your
own home is stone. Stone brings the
outdoors, indoors. It has a beautiful raw texture and a natural feel to the touch. It comes in all shapes, sizes, and colors, but I recommend you find
stone from local queries. That way, you minimize
your environmental impact and keep the local craftsmanship
and traditions alive. Exposed brick is also
one natural material, that creates a beautiful texture and it's relatively cheap. Unless it's a thick wall, it's not a good
thermal insulator. It needs to have a coating
of paint, otherwise, it can hold dirt and moisture and you can
have mold problems. Bamboo is one of those materials that is not getting
enough recognition, at least not in the West. It is incredibly versatile and durable and it is
used both in building construction and for
making a wide variety of everyday products like
toothbrushes and keyboards. Regarding home decor
and interior design, you will find it in beautiful
furniture and decor products like decorative trays and bowls and beautiful lamps. It offers both smooth and
more textured finishes. Natural clay plasters
are excellent, healthy breathable finishes for internal walls and ceilings. They do not contain any toxic ingredients or
volatile organic compounds. They can be molded to generate various wall textures
and custom carvings. They also come in a large array of beautiful pastel colors. Clay, plaster used to be a wonderful building
material in the old days. In my home, Romanian
grandparents used it for their home, but I think many people have
forgotten how wonderful it truly is both to our
health and to the touch. Copper is one of those surprising materials that offers two qualities
in one product. It's natural and antimicrobial. Copper and its alloy
brass can kill viruses, bacteria, and fungi on its
surface within two hours. As a home decor element, you will see it in
bathrooms and in kitchens, like on sinks and
faucets and places frequently touched by
hands like doorknobs. In addition, you
can see it used as a wall decor element and
on lambs and furniture. Many cultures worldwide have been using it for cooking pots, decorative water jugs, and teapots because of its
antibacterial properties, so look through vintage
and antique shops for some copper treasurers. There are, of course, many other natural materials. I don't wish to overwhelm you
with everything out there. Still, I hope that by
leaving this lesson, you will remember two things. One, natural materials, and two, materials that
stimulate your sense of touch will support your
overall home well-being. See you in the next lesson.
7. Hearing: Noise: I want to start this lesson
with a demonstration. I currently live close
to a very busy street. There are four lanes
going by my house. Here's the left side. On top of the intersection, there is the subway going. There's also another four
lane street coming my way. There are ambulance alarms
and cars honking everyday. But good insulating
windows can reduce considerably the amount of
decibels you will hear. Let me show you how that sounds. [NOISE] I just see the subway coming. [NOISE] I'm not going to subject
you to anymore of that. But as you can see you can be surrounded by all the
plants in the world, but if the noise
levels are unbearable, then you will have no peace. All the resources need
to be supported and addressed when we talk
about biophilic design. Now let's get back
to our lesson. In this lesson, I wish to talk about our sense of
hearing and give you a few tips how your
home can be supportive of the sense in order to
create more well-being. Because more and more
people live in urban areas, traffic noise has become
a serious disturbance. A study made by the World
Health Organization links noise with high level of
stress and lack of sleep, which in return is
linked to tiredness, lack of concentration, and a series of health ailments like cardiovascular disease, cognitive impairment in
children, and teenagers. An interesting fact is that people can cope with noise
somewhat differently. Some people are able
to tune it out, with others never
get used to it. Take into account what
kind of person you are when picking a
home in a noisy area. Just like the quality of air, the amount of noise you will be hearing is highly dependent on where your home is located and choosing
that location right, is going to make the
biggest difference between you feeling relaxed and balanced at
home and not feeling bad. The first step is to really look at the neighborhood
you will be living in. Check for the nearby traffic
like roads and railways, check for big
construction sites, check for industry
buildings, dance studios, refrigeration and air
conditioning technologies attached to your walls. Once you are inside the home, check the sound insulation
of your windows. Window technologies have
become more and more advanced and they are able to reduce considerable amount
of traffic noise. If your windows have low STC rating or sound
transmission class, and you find yourself having to install better sound
insulating windows, here are a couple of features
you will need to look at. One is the type of
glass for the window. Some types of glass are specifically designed
to reduce noise. Number 2 is the
thickness of the glass. The thicker the glass, the higher the insulation. Number 3 is the number
of glass layers. The more layers the
better, of course, so you can opt for double
or triple glazing. The space between the
glass panes also matters. The greater the gap between
the sheets of the glass, the better the noise reduction. Generally, when you search
for a sound reducing window, you should look
at the STC rating 40 or above in order to make a real difference to a
traffic noise problem. The higher you can afford
it though, the better. The problem with relying
only on windows to keep noise out is that you need
to open them at some point, either for ventilation purposes or in summer for
cooling purposes. If you live in a climate
with long hot summers, you'll find yourself
choosing between two evils, either to be hot or to
have a noisy environment. Therefore, make sure to consider shading like
curtains and blinds, but also artificial cooling in order to mitigate
your discomfort. Other things you
might consider when looking for a home is
the age of the building. Old buildings may lose some
sound transmission qualities. You might ask your
real estate agent about the sound insulation
between apartments and how much precaution was taken in making sure that everyone
had their privacy. You might also ask about
quiet hours, house rules. Most apartment buildings
have rules about the quiet period between
10:00 PM to 8:00 AM. These rules may also come
from the cities themselves. For example, in Vienna, it's from 10:00 PM to 8:00 AM, but in the city of Graz
which is not that far away, it's from 7:00 PM to 7:00 AM, and additionally, on
Saturdays from 12:00-3:00 PM. Every city has its own
rules about this aspect. The bigger the city, the looser the
rules, I would say. But this might also identify those quiet moments of time
when you can relax a bit. If you find yourself that
you are already moved in, but want to
soundproof your home, I've talked more about
this in another class of mine called Bedroom
Design for Better Sleep. There I talk at length about the four ways you can
reduce noise in your home, which are absorbing sound, reducing vibrations,
plugging sound leaks, and using sound systems, complete with various
tips on how to do it. I hope by the end
of this lesson, you can remember that noise
should not be taken lightly, especially when it comes
to picking a home.
8. Tasting: Cooking: We are down to our last
sense, which is tasting. Now technically you cannot
taste your environment, but the design of your
environment can make it more likely for you to
cook healthy or not. Then why does this matter? Because what we eat can have an impact on our overall
mood and happiness, and choosing a home that
will make it easy for us to cook healthy
is highly important. What are some key
features of kitchens that you might need to look out
for when picking a home? Or how might you have to
redesign your kitchen in order to make it more supportive
of your healthy cooking? The first thing you
might check is, is it brightened,
pleasant to be in? Do you naturally enjoy to be there or is it more
like a train station? You pick what you need from it and live as quickly as possible. Do you have natural light
from a window coming in? Is there an area where
you can place some pots for herbs so you can have them fresh on hand
when you cook? Oftentimes in small spaces, the kitchen space
gets sacrificed in order to give occupants
the maximum leading space, however, the kitchen needs is proper amount of space as well. Usually, the countertop
space gets filled with various kitchen devices like water kettle, toaster,
and mixtures. If the surface we have for
cooking is already small, there's not a lot of space left on the counter for
preparing the meal. Because of that, occupants who might have cook
healthy for themselves at one point gradually drift
towards more convenient, easy to prepare meals in order to not deal with the
kitchen problem. If that's the case,
look around for possibilities to extend
your kitchen countertop. Might be able to pull a table close or could you add the
mobile module to your kitchen? Could you add
affordable table or maybe you can pull an
element out from underneath? Simple ideas like this can make the experience
of cooking more pleasurable and can
make the difference between new cooking
healthy or not. Another element that
gets sacrificed in small kitchens is
the refrigerator. Again, it's difficult to store fresh fruits and vegetables
in small fridges. Because of that, we
end up looking for more ready-made
things that we can store in cupboards, slowly, the kitchen forces us to
compensate for the lack of space by buying more ready-made
unless healthier alternatives. But refrigerators don't
have to be dull things. With a bit of imagination, you could make them
into a piece of art as part of your
living room décor. You will cover them in
wallpaper or paint on them, or just pick one
refrigerated that has a stylish design
to begin with. It's up to your
needs and budget, but don't let the size
of the fridge dictate how many fresh fruits
and vegetables you eat, and the level of your
overall well-being. Finally, I want to talk
about the kitchen triangle. What does that mean? One of the best ways to maximize usability in the kitchen
is to place the fridge, the stove, and the
washbasin inner triangle. This position works generally better than placing
them in a row because it offers
enough counter space without leaving the three
elements too far apart. You might want to check for this feature when
visiting a new home. To summarize all these ideas, whenever you visit the
kitchen of a home you want to buy or rent
try to ask yourself, is this more or less
the surface I have now? Can I see myself cooking here? Is there enough surface on the counter for my
kitchen robots? Check the size of the fridge, move between the fridge, the stove, and the washbasin. Does it feel comfortable? Because the more comfortable
you feel in the kitchen, the more likely you are to dedicate time to
cooking your own food.
9. Final Thoughts: Congratulations, you have made it to the end of the class. I hope you learned
some new things and already feel inspired
to apply them. If you wish to expand
your knowledge even further on this topic, I encourage you to go to my
Skillshare teacher profile. There you will find
more classes on complimentary topics which I
have no doubt you will love. If you're craving even more, I highly recommend that you explore the wealth of
resources available on my website and within the attached Bonus
resources PDF. There you will
discover more classes, book suggestions, and free
complimentary worksheets. Particularly the
worksheets will help you deepen your understanding
of the topics discussed in the class and identify
the changes that will have the biggest impact
on your personal well-being. If you're interested in more
freebies or live classes, I encourage you to sign
up to my newsletter. Each Sunday, I send out home
design ideas straight to your inbox all tailored to promote a home that will
help you become happier, healthier, and more creative. You'll be kept in the loop about my monthly Zoom calls
and special events. That's where I have
big free resources, book recommendations,
and I'll let you know about upcoming classes. If you liked this class, I would appreciate the review. It tells Skillshare that
you like my class and it encourages other people
to discover my work. Please use the Discussion
section to let me know your thoughts and
questions about the class. I'll be happy to help you clarify any concept
you do not understand. Additionally, if you
leave a class project, I will be able to help you with more personalized and
in-depth support. So I encourage you to share your home design
progress with me. We are at the end, see you in the next class.
Ana Marcu, Home Wellbeing, Licensed architect
