Wellness by Design: Part 3
This is the third and final part of wellness by design!
After diving into what makes a place relaxing and calming with local architect Maeve Staunton Henderson while on holiday in Mykonos, we put this blog together to unveil some of ways we interact with our environment, and how our environment interacts with us.
Part 1 detailed concepts of colour, texture, and material in relation to cities and holiday destinations, while part 2 covered how to bring those concepts into your own home. Part 3 will expand into how we can use light, both sunlight and indoor lighting, to facilitate our wellness.
We are always interacting with our environment.
Many of us know where to go if we need a quiet moment to calm down, or where to go to feel hyped up. Many of us are aware that our actions have serious impacts on the environment, and we do our best to understand that impact and to make decisions that benefit us and our surroundings.
When we consider what makes an environment warm, calm, or chaotic, it comes down to three things: colours, textures, and materials. A calm, relaxing environment will have few colours, limited textures, and natural materials.
With these in mind, we need to also consider light. How does light influence our wellness? How do we optimise the light we get in our homes, and where should this light be coming from?
Let’s start with indoor lighting.
The colour, brightness, and location of indoor lighting is all important.
Consider how you feel in a room with bright lights on the ceiling compared to the same room but with dimly lit lights on the walls, or with lamps set on tables and desks.
Have you noticed how popular salt lamps have become? You see them everywhere. Not only are they made of natural material, but they also provide a unique, natural texture and a soft glow.
Salt lamps aren’t the only natural material letting light shine through. When you gaze up at the spectacular windows in a cathedral, how often are they made of stone, such as alabaster, and not glass?
Lighting is also important for our body on a physiological level.
Daylight lamps have been gaining popularity as well to prevent Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD), and people living in cities may have Lumie clocks so they can wake up with natural light for a better start to their day.
While it’s great to have so many tools to use for optimal lighting, the best thing we can do is seek out sunlight.
That’s why it’s so important to consider where the sun will be when thinking about how to decide which rooms will be what in a new home.
If you’re driving around the countryside looking at manor houses, you might notice that some houses don’t always face the road – they may be angled to take advantage of solar gain (which is when the room benefits from the heat of the sun) or to protect themselves from prevalent winds.
Bedrooms on the East side of the house will catch the sun while it’s rising, and will be colder and darker at night, which we know can be beneficial for our sleep. We also don’t need much light in the morning, and usually don’t spend much time in the bedroom during the day, so smaller windows work well.
Living rooms and kitchens, on the other hand, should e facing southwest to allow the afternoon and evening sun to enter. Since we tend to spend more time in these rooms during the day, having larger windows is more beneficial. Letting the natural light in will also help us use less electricity!
And throw open those curtains! Sunlight contains UV light that kills germs.
And bathrooms and utility rooms will be in the north, where there is not going to be much sunlight at all.
Obviously it’s not always possible to have bedrooms in the east and living rooms in the southwest end of a house. And that’s ok! Utilising some of the lights we talked about earlier – salt lamps and Lumie lights – might be what does the trick when it’s done with intention.
Stacking the artificial light in a room leads to a more relaxed feeling.
Think of a pleasant mix of standing lamps, table lights and walls lights and how much more pleasant that is compared to a single overhead light. (FYI Staunton Henderson’s website does carry a page that continuously updates discount offers for lights.ie)
If you have all the lamps and lights you want, and still don’t feel that a room is bright enough, there are other ways to utilise the light that is already available.
A designer’s trick to brighten a dark room is to use a mirror opposite the window. The mirror will reflect and amplify the light that is shining in.
If you’re doing an extension on your house, a sky light is always a good option as you will have light from mid-day. Because of this, skylights are best places in rooms that you will be using during the day – a skylight in a bedroom will not be as ideal as one in the kitchen.
Optimising sunlight through our homes can have an effect on our wellness, our health, and our electricity bill.
So perhaps when designing a plan of a home try to place the rooms in accordance with the sun path, and not where you are accustomed to these rooms being.
Consider where each room is located in the house, how big your windows are, and if there is an option for adding in a skylight. When sunlight isn’t an option, add indoor lighting that makes you feel calm and relaxed.
Maeve is hosting an online Renovation Crash Course and is offering our readers an exclusive 50% discount with “Wellness50”, reducing the price from €350 to €175! Register for your spot at http://stauntonhenderson.com/course
Maeve Staunton Henderson is director of architectural practice of the same name, Staunton Henderson. She is qualified from the prominent architecture school in London, the Architectural Association. Previous alumni include Sir. Richard Rogers, Sir. Norman Foster, Dame Zaha Hadid.
The practice is a two time AIBF Business All Star winner for trust, performance & customer-centricity. Maeve is an RIAI member.
Maeve was raised in Longford, studied in Dublin & London. She has worked in London, New York and in Cambodia for a Yale research project. She is currently building her dream home in Sligo for her family.
You can learn more about Maeve and her work by visiting her website or following her on instagram
