ABSTRACT
As we move about in the world, we create a model of how the world
works. That is, we sense the objective world; we acquire new information, and
our perception changes. A badly-designed environment can be suffocating,
oppressive, and draining, while a well-designed environment can transmit a
feeling of relaxation, cosiness and, safety. A well-designed interior, which is
cohesive within each area and cohesive as a totality, and relate favourably
with the building, architectural concept and the nearby environment can serve
as a tool for improving students’ academic performance. However, most interiors
within educational buildings are unattractive and need to make up for the lack
of design qualities in the structures. Thus, the need for proper design of
indoor environments of schools’ buildings that is pleasant, safe, functional,
and supportive of effective learning. This paper discusses the role of interior
design in enhancing visual and educational performance educational environment.
It emphasises on aesthetic components of indoor design; space, colour and
finishes, lighting, floor and wall coverings, windows and doors treatment,
furniture and accessories, as they affects the visual perception of school
buildings’ indoor environments. It suggests proper designing, construction,
supervision and maintenance of all indoor aesthetics elements.
Keywords: aesthetics, design,
educational-building, environment, interior.
INTRODUCTION
Interior Design can be defined as the
creative integration of forms, materials, function and aesthetics put together
within an interior space. It entails development of an understanding of and
sensitivity to past history, future technology, the environment, economics, architecture
and societal needs and aspirations. Interior design provides functional and
creative solutions to interior spatial needs with emphasis on the health,
safety and welfare of the occupants and the end-users of a building. People
appreciate what they can see therefore, one can out rightly say that sight dominates
the way we appreciate the environment. Visual perception inevitably controls
and directs our disposition in the environment.
Perception is one of the oldest fields
within scientific psychology. The major problem in visual perception is that
what people see is not simply a translation of retinal stimuli (i.e. the image
on the retina). Thus, people interested in perception have long struggled to
explain what visual processing does to create what we actually see,
The desire to create a pleasant environment
in an Educational environment is as old as civilization itself so it is
important to give the interior of such environment a befitting design to
enhance and support effective learning. It is therefore important to emphasise
that interior design is a specialized branch of architecture or environmental
design.
Many elements make up a good interior in
totality. These elements include the Site planning, landscaping, furniture,
structural aspects of a building, architectural graphics as well as the
interior details. .All interiors, by definition, occur inside buildings and
therefore have a very real relation to these buildings. The best interiors
today, as well as in the past, are those that relate well in character and
appropriateness to the particular building.
Certain architectural
features do affect behaviour and, it is assumed that student behaviour does
impact learning. Fraser (1979), stresses that the qualities of complexity,
surprise, novelty and beauty encourage exploratory behaviour among school
building occupants. He found that interest and involvement in school by young
children increased as stimulus complexity increased. In a study of preschools,
spatial quality in the physical environment was linked with student and teachers
engagement in classroom activity. They found that when spatial quality was low,
teachers were more likely to be insensitive or neutral in their nature, while
in high quality space teachers were more likely to be sensitive, friendly and
encouraging in their manner towards children.
In the Washington , D.C.
INTERIOR DESIGNER
Interior designers are creative problem
solvers who provide their clients with functional and creative solutions to
interior spatial needs. They also research materials and finishes to find the
most appropriate to meet the clients functional and aesthetic needs. Interior
designers are people who work to design indoor environment that are pleasant,
safe and functional.
They prepare drawings and specifications for
interior construction, furnishing, lighting and finishes always keeping their
clients requirements and budgets in mind. They co-ordinate colours and
finishes, select furnishings, floor and wall covering, window treatments, arts
and all the other elements that provides an aesthetically pleasing, safe and functional
environment. They use computer aided drawings, renderings and presentation
boards to convey their design to the clients.
Interior designers are often confused with
interior decorators but there is a difference. An interior decorator requires
no formal education. They most often work in homes and small businesses and
focus mainly on decoration.
On the other hand interior designers are
professionally educated and trained. They co-ordinate with Architects,
engineers and contractors and must understand fire codes, ergonomics, lighting,
acoustics and implementation of technology because they have educated to handle
more task than simply selecting paint and fabric for a room, they also tend to
earn much more than their interior decorator counterparts. Most interior
designers work with interior design or architectural firms. Some work for furniture
retailers and wholesalers, others work with real estate companies, developers,
large corporations, large manufacturers, government institutions, entertainment
companies or they are self employed. Aesthetic elements such as space, colour,
light, furniture, and colour amongst others affect self-esteem, peer and
student-teacher interactions, discipline, attention, motivation, and interpersonal
relations.
AESTHETIC COMPONENTS OF INDOOR DESIGN
Aesthetics means beauty. It is a thorough
appreciation of any form of art which must go beyond first impressions.
Aesthetics to an interior and its furnishings must take into cognizance the
materials being used and it must change or conform to the technology of the
time.
The more beautiful or aesthetically pleasing
an educational environment is, the more the pupils/ students are attracted to
the environment since the environment will be appreciated by the end users. The
question of whether a design “works” or functions for its purpose, must be one
of the key considerations in any design. For instance if a theatre has poor sight
lines, poor acoustics, and insufficient means of entry and egress, it obviously
does not work for its purpose, no matter how beautifully it might be decorated.
Such a design could be considered good only if it were thought of abstractly as
a kind of walk-in sculpture. In some cases the building is meant to be
sculpture rather than architecture. The Statue of Liberty, for instance, is
primarily intended as a monument, despite the fact that it contains rather
tortured interior spaces.
To use function as the only aesthetic
criterion would be limiting, but it certainly is a valid consideration to be
kept in mind. Designers are often tempted to over design or “style” an object
or interior rather than design it. Some of the most beautiful objects of the
20th century are beautiful because they were the result of purely functional
considerations. It is conceivable that future art historians will consider a
modern jet plane the crowning artistic achievement of the middle of this
century, rather than any building, interior, or conscious art form.
The aesthetic response to an interior and
its furnishings must take into consideration the social and economic conditions
as well as the materials and technology of the time. The elegant or ornate
interiors that are usually associated with the 18th and 19th centuries were
appropriate to the social and economic conditions of the nobility or the
wealthy bourgeois who were the original occupants. The chairs were designed for
formal living, and the elaborately carved furnishings were designed to be cared
for by many servants. Such an interior is alien to the 20th-century way of life
and would be totally inappropriate for a contemporary middle class family. It
would also be inappropriate to use modern materials and processes to imitate
earlier materials and processes. Many manufacturers try desperately to make
plastic look like wood, stone, or just about anything but plastic.
All aesthetic criteria have something to do
with honesty. Some aestheticians have compared beauty to truth, and there can
be little doubt that honestly expressed functions and honestly expressed
materials and manufacturing processes are far more beautiful than fakery and
imitation.
The most difficult aesthetic consideration
is the problem of appropriateness. The appropriate atmosphere or character of
an interior must take all the foregoing points into consideration. The
architectural character of the TWA terminal would make it inappropriate for use
as an office building. The appropriateness of individual, more intimate and
small-scaled interiors is more subtle. The interior design of a discotheque
would hardly be appropriate for a research library, and a college classroom
would hardly provide the desired atmosphere for a kindergarten. Many of these
responses and relationships are complex and have psychological as well as
aesthetic factors. The following are some of the aesthetic components of an interior
or indoor design:
SPACE
Of all the component elements that together
form a completed interior, the single most important element is space. Spaces
can be exhilarating or depressing, cheerful or serene, all depending upon the
use the designer has made of the various elements that form the whole.
Space is, in modern times, a costly
commodity. Due to the vast increase in construction costs in contemporary
structures, spaces tend to be smaller and less generous; more skill on the part
of the designer is required to give such limited spaces a particular atmosphere
or character. On the other hand, sheer volume of space is not sufficient. There
is hardly a larger space than the interior of the Vehicle
Assembly Building
at the John F. Kennedy Space Centre in Florida New
York City
Most interiors consist of a series of
interrelated spaces. It is important that the various spaces be designed in a
sequential relationship to each other, not only in terms of planning but also
in terms of the visual effect. A successful interior should be cohesive within
each area and cohesive as a totality. It must above all relate to the building
and to the architectural concept.
COLOUR AND FINISHES
Colour is the quality of light reflected
from an object to the human eye. When light falls upon an object, some of it is
absorbed, and that which is not absorbed is reflected, and the apparent colour
of an object depends upon the wavelength of the light that it reflects. The
scientific attributes of colour and light in interior designs are, however,
less important than the skilful combination of colour values, hues, tones,
shades, and above all textures.
“Colour is important and it can have
benefits for the classrooms” says Kathie Engelbretcht, an educational
planner with the Perkins Will Design firm. Studies have also indicated that the
colours in a classroom can affect how students behave and perform.
After finding
functional furniture that is safe, comfortable, flexible and durable, schools
may want to consider how the colours of the furnishings can enhance the
learning environment. Function should also be a primary consideration for
colour selection says Engelbretcht. In a presentation she prepared in 2003 on
‘The impact of colour on learning’ she urges schools administrators and
designers to take a more studied stance of colour in the educational
environment. In many cases, decisions are not made about furniture before the
school building is designed so the colour of the furniture is not co-ordinated
within the surroundings.
Colour
has an impact on student learning. (Lynne et al, 2001) found that
students participated twice as much in discussions in classrooms that were
"soft", meaning they had warm colours, soft furniture and textured
floor coverings. When students rated such classrooms, they rated them higher
than traditional classrooms. She stresses that soft classrooms were associated
with better attendance and more positive attitudes toward the class, the instructor
and classmates. Still another study found a relationship between an "ugly"
environment and feelings of discontent, the desire to escape, and fatigue. (Edward et al, 2004).
Much in our man-made structures is built of
natural materials, and it must be remembered that these materials have natural
colours and textures that usually are superior to anything man can create
artificially. Competent designers are very much aware of the innate qualities
and textures of all materials, especially natural ones. For instance, a
sensitive designer would choose a simple oil finish on wood to bring out the
beauty and quality of the grain rather than use the once-fashionable high-gloss
finish that tended to obscure and change the texture.
LIGHTING
Light is one of the key elements of interior
design. Most interior spaces constructed in the 20th century are used as much
with artificial light as with daylight; because of this, lighting has become a
very significant tool for the interior designer. There are three major aspects
to lighting: function, aesthetics, and health. The latter factor is often
ignored, but insufficient illumination can cause eyestrain and physical
discomfort. Illuminating engineers have established recommended standards of
illumination for various tasks and have also provided rules and standards relating
to brightness of the source of lighting and controls for shielding the eye from
direct glare. Light can be diffused and can, in general, be controlled very
accurately. Natural and artificial light is an important element of design. It
also enhances the visual qualities of an educational environment. “The effect
of indoor lighting does not arise solely from light that enters the eye, but
also from light that strikes the skin” (Ott, 1976).
In an educational environment, fluorescent
lighting is mostly used because of its energy efficiency. From studies carried
out, it has been shown that there are significant benefits to replacing the
common florescent bulbs which emits wavelength with an artificial loading
towards longer red and yellow wavelength with bulbs that produce whither light
or full spectrum light that is more enriched in blues and violets and is closer
to natural sunlight. (Grangaard, 1993)
Colzewski et al (1996) note that one
practical reason for needed change is that artificial light that is rich in
yellowish wavelength produces a glare from white paper that results in eye
strain. The beautiful quality of space in a built environment is very much
related to the handling of light. Most contemporary interiors have skylights or
high windows to provide variety and changing patterns of light.
Light has been shown to affect blood
pressure, pulse, respiratory activity, biorhythms, and the pineal glands
synthesis of melatonin and serotonin. The use of natural lighting along with
manmade lighting is a current trend in architecture that is believed to be
positive for learning. Exposure to full-spectrum lighting has been associated
with better school attendance, more positive moods, great concentration, and
better scholastic performance.
(Harmon, 1991).
FLOORS
Interior floors are basically divided into
two (2) i.e. those that forms the integral part of a structure and those that
are applied after the structure is completed.
Flooring such as terrazzo, bricks, concrete,
wood, slates e.t.c. can be specified by an architect. There also exists the
man-made of synthetic floor covering and these are classified as resilient
floors. An example is the Linoleum.
There is only little research evidence that
educational benefits in relation to particular floor coverings, but carpeted
floors are favoured over other types by instructors. This is in accordance with
educational design principles No 17 “Regard teachers as professionals” the
ideal learning environment study, a National survey of public schools teachers
conducted by Beth Schapiro & associates examined teachers' opinions
regarding the relationship between interior design and academic performance. The
result of the survey indicated an accepted belief that good interior design
promotes a positive learning environment. A majority of the teachers listed
carpet as the preferred classroom floor covering because it helps prevent
falls, provides comfort, absorbs noise and allows for flexibility in the
classroom.
WINDOWS AND DOORS TREATMENT
Windows and doors in contemporary design are
not placed as decorative elements or as parts of symmetrical compositions but
are primarily considered as functional elements and are expressed as such. If
windows are carefully designed and placed for light, for ventilation, for air,
and for view, decorative treatment is often unnecessary and a simple device
such as a shade or shutter will suffice to control light and privacy. Most
buildings, however, need window treatments, since no particular care in the
placement of fenestration was taken by the builders.
The most frequently used devices are
curtains and draperies. Although semantically there is no clear distinction
between the two, drapery implies more elaborate treatments with lining, over
drapes, valances, and tassels. A curtain, on the other hand, is lighter, more
direct, less theatrical, and more functional. Frequently, a light material is
chosen to provide privacy or light control with minimum emphasis. Curtains,
however, offer only partial control over light, glare, and privacy; complete
control or privacy often requires shades, blinds, or shutters. Window shades
without overly ornate borders and tassels are a perfectly good device for those
controls, and Venetian blinds are also a most acceptable treatment.
Since the 1960s designers have tried to
simplify window treatments, and, if curtains, shades, or blinds were not deemed
appropriate for functional or aesthetic reasons, devices such as chains or
beads on windows or very simple sliding panels were found to be more effective
than more elaborate treatments.
The essential considerations for windows
must be based on the functional needs and on the overall aesthetic intent. If a
space is well designed in architectural terms and presents a cohesive image, it
rarely makes sense to feature a window or door. Poorly detailed windows in
office buildings or apartment houses are often overcome or played down by using
a simple curtain material covering a complete window wall. The wall-to-wall and
floor-to-ceiling treatment of a window wall is frequently the only way to
screen out unattractive details.
Doors must be carefully planned, relating
the swing and location to the functional needs, and their heights, colour,
material, or textures to the adjoining wall surfaces or design elements in the
space. Most doors used in the 20th century are “flush” doors—that is, they have
unbroken surfaces made of wood or metal; even where glass is used the attempt
is usually made to have maximum glass area unbroken by frames and mouldings.
Sometimes the entrance doors to important spaces are designed or decorated as
compositional focal points, but usually the emphasis is on excellence in
detailing and hardware rather than on decorative surface designs. The use of
the curtains and draperies is also to screen off the students from side
attraction and concentrate on what they are being thought by their teachers.
FURNITURE AND ACCESSORIES
To the layman, furniture is the most
important aspect of interior design. It is a significant component of design to
the professional as well, since it is the most personal and intimate product
relating man to a building. It is also personal because it can be moved from
one home to the next and handed on from generation to generation, and often
furniture takes on important sentimental value.
Accessories are even more personal, but they
are less significant to the overall effect of the interior, since they are by
nature smaller than furniture. Almost anything that people own or collect could
be called an “accessory,” including functional objects, such as ashtrays, and
decorative objects, such as porcelain, glass, or ceramics.
Whatever material or manufacturing process
may be used, the important criteria that must be applied in furniture are
function, comfort, and durability, together with aesthetic considerations.
Architects and interior designers often prefer to build in furniture wherever
possible, and, indeed, some of the best historic and contemporary interiors
contain little movable furniture. An interior without any furniture or
accessories would probably appear stark and uninviting, and it is clear that
the personal touches possible through selection of appropriate furniture and
accessories are very important.
One can use a vast array of decorative
objects or plants as accessories. In a way, every accessory used in a home,
office, schools or public space is in some way a part of the total composition,
and must therefore be selected with care. What should be primarily considered
is to provide students with comfortable seats that allow them undue strain or
fatigue as they carry out their classroom activities.
RECOMMENDATION
PROPER DESIGNING
In the building of
an interior, the first thing to borne in mind is the design. The design stage
plays a vital role in any design since this is the stage where the design is
conceived. Drawing and drafting at that stage is the designer's way of
visualizing his own ideas and at the same time putting them in such a form that
they can be communicated to his associates for discussion and eventually
communicated to his clients. All the aesthetic components come into play at
that stage of design, including colours, lighting, and textures, although at
the early design stages no precise selection of materials or objects is made.
Obviously, this creative phase of interior design is based on thorough research
and critical analysis and is not simply the result of a sudden flash of
inspiration.
CONSTRUCTION AND SUPERVISION
In the actual
building of the interior, be it renovation or a new construction, needs
considerable supervision by the designer, although constant on-site supervision
is not always required. For an office, educational institution or residence, a
few visits may be sufficient. The thoroughness of working drawings and details
influences the degree of supervision that is needed: the more complete the
drawings and specifications for a particular job, the less time must be spent
on the site during the building stage. Construction techniques must be adhered
to strictly and proper building materials must be specified and all
specifications must be strictly adhered to.
MAINTENANCE
Even when materials are used for its
intended purpose, the normal wear and tear till takes place with time. In the
construction industry, adequate provision must be made for the maintenance of all
indoor aesthetic elements so as to preserve and also enhance its life span. In
an educational environment, offices and classrooms must be swept on daily
basis, cleaning of toilets, removal of cobwebs, refuse disposal as and when
due, regular cutting of grass,
replacement of light bulbs, repairs of broken furniture, re-painting among
others.
CONCLUSION
The paper investigated the role of interior
design in enhancing visual perception and improving learning qualities in an
educational environment. To ensure effective teaching, learning and
understanding, it is important to put into consideration the architecture of
the environment as a whole which comprises of the construction methods,
landscaping, design, supervision and maintenance of all indoor
aesthetics elements.
The paper suggests proper designing,
construction, supervision and maintenance of all indoor aesthetics element.
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