5 min read
What is Good Design Responsible For?
We spend most of our lives indoors. WLLW founder Lisa Sternfeld explores what that means for the way we think about good design.
WORDS Lisa Sternfeld
For years, I’ve been aware of the statistic that we spend roughly 90 percent of our lives indoors. It’s a big number, but recently I started thinking about what it actually means over the course of a lifetime. For someone who lives to 80, it amounts to 72 years spent indoors. Few other environments have that kind of sustained influence on our daily lives.
That’s 72 years spent sleeping, eating, working, raising families, gathering, resting and simply living in the spaces we create around ourselves. When you think about a home across that length of time, the decisions we make take on a different significance.
For most of my career, good design meant many of the things designers have always cared deeply about: beauty, function, proportion, craftsmanship, comfort and the way a space makes someone feel.
My own experience with environmental health fundamentally expanded that definition. I didn’t stop caring about beauty, I just started expecting more from it. That shift changed the way I think about design and what good design is ultimately responsible for.
We tend to think about a home as a collection of individual decisions; the paint on the walls, the sofa we sit on, the light above the kitchen counter, the mattress we sleep on and the water coming from the tap. Together, those choices create the environment we live within every day. The design process may end, but our exposure to those decisions does not.
Good design has always considered how people experience a space, including how they move through it, what they touch and see, where they gather and how a place makes them feel. However, those decisions don't shape our experience alone, they also shape the environment our bodies live within.
A window determines a view and the quality of light in a room, while that same light helps regulate the body’s circadian rhythms. A rug changes how a room looks and feels, while its fibers, backing, dyes and treatments become part of the indoor environment. A bedroom can be beautiful, but its air quality, temperature, light, sound and materials all contribute to the conditions for sleep. The aesthetic and the environmental aren’t separate considerations, they exist in the same room.
“The design process may end, but our exposure to those decisions does not.”
Lisa Sternfeld
Our environments can also actively support us. Morning light can help anchor the beginning of the day while fresh air and a connection to nature can change howwe experience a room. Materials can feel good in hand, and the spaces themselves can support sleep, conversation, movement and gathering. We can be aware of what we want to limit in our homes while also asking what our surroundings can offer us. That changes the questions we ask.
One of the simplest questions I now ask when looking at a material or product is “What is this actually made of?”
We know the color, dimensions, price, lead time and performance specifications. We may know that something is described as natural, sustainable or low-VOC. But we often don't know what's actually in it.
What has been added to it? How has it been treated? What is in the finish, coating, adhesive or backing? What does the manufacturer disclose? Those questions allow us to make better-informed decisions about what we bring into our homes. They also create demand for something I believe our industry needs much more of – transparency.
The same thinking extends beyond materials. What is the quality of the air and water? How does daylight move through the house? What do we hear? Where do we encounter nature? How does the home support sleep, movement, gathering and rest? These questions belong in the design process.
Good design, then, is about the conditions we create through those choices. A home may take months or years to design, but it will be lived in for decades. Through mornings and meals, nights of sleep, children growing up, celebrations, routines and thousands of ordinary days, what we create becomes part of everyday life.
Which brings me back to 72 years.
When you think about design across that length of time, what we ask of it changes. We aren’t simply making decisions about how a home looks or feels. We are shaping an environment that will become part of someone’s everyday life.
What is good design responsible for? For me, the answer has expanded.
Beauty is still at the heart of good design. I just believe we can ask and expect more of it. We can ask it to consider the air we breathe, the water we drink, the materials we touch, the light and sound we experience and ultimately, how a home supports the people living within it.
After all, if we are going to spend so much of our lives inside, the spaces we create should do more than look beautiful. They should help us live well.
Feature Image: iStock
