Workspace Aesthetics for Well-Being

Have you ever struggled with an ability to concentrate and focus during your workday? Or do you ever feel like you are not as productive as you could be? Are you feeling stressed and fatigued after a workday? The aesthetics of your workspace could be playing a role in your abilities for focusing, concentrating, and completing work tasks and projects in an efficient way. The design of your workspace could also influence your stress and energy levels on a daily basis. So what aspects of aesthetics really matter when it comes to your personal well-being?

Aesthetics is a branch of philosophy that deals with the value formations of beauty. Immanuel Kant and Plato are two early western philosophers who wrote about the concepts of aesthetics. The etymology of the term aesthetics derives from the Greek word aisthetikos, which relates to having experiences through sensory perception. By visual experience of paintings of ephemeral and serene landscapes, for example, the imagination could be released into a realm of pleasure or relaxation. While the visual experience of dark and heavy paintings of battle and war might cause the mind to focus on sorrow, confusion, or anger. The visual information, in these examples, translates into experiences in the mind that influence the mood, vibe, and thoughts you will begin to have.

In the same way that visual cues from the environment can influence your experiences, aesthetics can also be formed with other sensory perception factors – such as sound and smell. When you listen to the ocean waves undulating back and forth on a shoreline, your imagination allows for you to inhabit that place and experience the beach. This can create a relaxed mood and a sense of calm in the mind. Aromatherapy infuses another sensory experience into a space and can create moods of feeling grounded (earthy notes) or uplifted (citrus notes) and so on. As a whole, when applied to architectural and interior design, aesthetics becomes the designed experience of a space.

Setting up a well-designed experience requires some thought and coordination across different elements that are needed for both functions and mindset goals of the space. For work activities, the basic furnishings of a desk, chair, bookshelf, file cabinet, and task light may be all that is needed. But there are numerous options for furniture design by way of materials, colors, shapes, and proportions. For a purely utilitarian approach, any furnishing that works for its function will do. Many home workspaces are cobbled together with the elements that will serve their primary purpose. The result, however, can be one that reduces visual clarity in the workspace, which can also manifest as reduced clarity in the mind throughout the workday. For designing the aesthetics of the workspace, it is important to establish the psychological experiences you want to instill, and then determine the sensory qualities that translate into these experiences for you.

Some areas to consider in the aesthetics of the workspace include conveying clarity. This can be achieved through a minimalist aesthetic, avoiding clutter, and coordinating elements for overall harmony. Following this principle will enable greater concentration and focus throughout the day. It is also important to establish aesthetics that reduce stress and fatigue. This can be accomplished with the introduction of elements from nature through color, pattern, materials, and textures in the space. You can also incorporate artwork or photographs of nature to bring calming effects to your workspace. Biophilic design principles connect the benefits of nature’s beauty for our mind and well-being. Bringing a few plants, sounds, and smells of nature into your workspace can also help stabilize your heart-rate variability and reduce stress.

The harmony of the overall space can be achieved by simplifying the color palette to three basic colors, preferably borrowed from elements of nature, and establishing a rule for the proportions of elements. See the blog post on color theory for an overview of how to determine some rules for your color combinations. Proportions define the geometric and spatial relationships between elements through sizes, geometries, and datum lines. You want to find a balance in the proportions of furnishings by utilizing similar qualities for sizing and shapes of chair and table legs, thicknesses of surfaces (i.e. desktop, chair set, shelving), and relation of these items to the space (i.e. not too obtrusive or diminished for the workspace). Visual clarity can also be achieved by aligning heights of horizontal surfaces and lines in the room, such as matching the top of shelving with the top of the window, or aligning the surface of the desk with the windowsill, etc.

Identifying your personal workday psychology can also help you to determine the best aesthetic approach for workspace wellness. If you tend to daydream or space out during the workday, you might want to establish an aesthetic to feel more grounded in your workspace. This can be achieved with natural colors of the earth, heavier furnishing elements made from dark wood, and photographs or artwork based on architecture, engineering, or technology that engage the pragmatic mind. If you tend to feel low energy, bored, or unmotivated during the workday, you might want to establish an aesthetic to feel more uplifting and energizing. This can be accomplished with brighter colors from plants and flowers, shinier furnishing elements made from metals and glass, and patterns or artwork based on Fibonacci series that engage the intellectual mind.

Maybe you have a tendency for feeling stressed and anxious during the workday, in which case you should try to create a calming and quieting environment. This can be achieved with lighter colors and an airy sensibility, incorporating light oak or ash wood furnishings, and photographs or artwork of nature, sea, and sky. If you are generally productive during the workday, but otherwise feel uncertain in your purpose or have a lack of confidence, the design of your workspace can have basic white furnishings and a neutral palette to create a balanced base. From this, you can integrate a vibrant power color that gives you hope and strength, firm geometric patterns such as triangles, circles, and squares, and affirmation text prints or photographs of family and pets who depend on and believe in you.

Your well-being is dependent on your state of mind, and your mindset is partly influenced by the aesthetics of your environment. Pay attention to your workday psychology in a conscious way to identify possible challenges or tendencies that may be disrupting your flow or your potential in completing tasks and reaching achievements with your work. You can then begin to transform your designed environment by tuning the workspace elements towards the materials, colors, patterns, and sensory phenomena that will create the experience you want to have. By shifting the overall aesthetics of your workspace, you can improve your productivity, increase your energy, reduce your stress or anxieties, and find joy and motivation to continue with your tasks and goals. Grab you free copy of the Healthy Home Workspace 5-step Guide, delivered right to your inbox, for additional insights and knowledge for healthy home and workspace design.

If you are considering some design modifications for your home workspace and would like some personalized guidance, reach out to AIDA, LLC today for a consultation. You can always find more information and healthy home resources at Aletheia Ida Design and Architecture, LLC (AIDA, LLC) at www.aletheiaida.com.