AIT | BDIA Impulse 12.2015

Rooms and interior designs that focus on well being

Being healthy, being good for you. People's health is certainly a key issue in our society. Magazines define our times as being fast-paced, explain how to be good to ourselves and tell us how we can stay healthy. By definition, a person is healthy when all organs of the body are intact, when there is no disorder and the body is in a naturally balanced state.

As an architect, it is my job to create new spaces. Rooms that are healthy? What this means to me as an architect when I take this definition as a starting point in the context of people is to create a coherent space. A space, the individual elements of which are balanced and add to the overall structure. Rooms that do you good? Here the effect on the user of the room comes into play.

To achieve the desired atmosphere, an intensive examination of what is expected of the space is necessary. Spatial composition, choice of materials, use of light and colour are our tools.

Looking at it this way, it is our task to develop healthy spaces in our daily work. Rooms that are in line with the needs of the builders and the needs of the visitors. Finding the best individual solution. A restaurant makes you feel good in quite a different way than a shop or an office space. Alongside our projects, we are currently planning our new office in Stuttgart. The move is scheduled for the end of the year. Here we are the builders ourselves. We spend a great deal of time looking at our own requirements and what an office can do for you. In this case, it means creating the best possible working conditions for ourselves. Every employee has individual wishes, but everyone agrees on the most important points: the office should be inspiring and offer the freedom for creative development. We need enough space to design, build, draw, present the works and gather and exchange ideas. Teamwork is front and centre, but concentrated work must be possible at the same time.

On our way to the perfect office, we are moving between openness and separate rest areas, between intimacy and transparency, between freedom and a comprehensive framework that forges the identity of our office.

There are four abstract terms that must be followed and promoted: communication, concentration, cooperation and creativity.

A healthy workplace requires certain basic prerequisites such as sufficient space, sensible lighting and technical equipment. There are no limits to our optimizing the space. Colour, choice of materials, space composition. The challenge is to find a healthy balance. Not too much, not too little. We neither want to work by artificial neon light nor by candlelight. No colour is at least one colour too few. Many colours may at first be entertaining, but become stressful after several hours of work. Plants improve the air quality, but a greenhouse would be the wrong conclusion.

Efficient work can’t be done without breaks. A break is good for the work process. We take this seriously and therefore give the break a separate work-free space: the generous kitchen with seating area and lounge. Conversation, input, new energy. All that’s left is to use this good space as best we can. And the effect can be measured by what we produce: our architectural works.

Source: AIT
Editor article: Frank Dittel
within the framework of the article series “BDIA Impulse 14/15” by Prof. Rudolf Schricker
Free translation by DIA – Dittel Architekten