Copyright © 2019 Dr. Sally Augustin
Published by Mango Publishing Group, a division of Mango Media Inc.
Cover and Layout Design: Elina Diaz
Mango is an active supporter of authors’ rights to free speech and artistic expression in their books. The purpose of copyright is to encourage authors to produce exceptional works that enrich our culture and our open society.
Uploading or distributing photos, scans or any content from this book without prior permission is theft of the author’s intellectual property. Please honor the author’s work as you would your own. Thank you in advance for respecting our author’s rights.
For permission requests, please contact the publisher at:
Mango Publishing Group
2850 Douglas Road, 2nd Floor
Coral Gables, FL 33134 USA
For special orders, quantity sales, course adoptions and corporate sales, please email the publisher at [email protected]. For trade and wholesale sales, please contact Ingram Publisher Services at [email protected] or +1.800.509.4887.
Neither the author nor the publisher is engaged in rendering professional advice or services to the individual reader. Neither the author nor the publisher shall be liable or responsible for any loss or damage allegedly arising from any information or suggestion in this book.
This text benefitted from discussions the author had with Tamie Glass at the University of Texas at Austin and Lindsay T. Graham at the Center for the Built Environment, University of California at Berkeley.
Designology: How to Find Your Placetype and Align Your Life with Design
Library of Congress Cataloging
ISBN: (print) 978-1-63353-882-5 (ebook) 978-1-63353-883-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2018962590
BISAC category code: HOM003000, HOUSE & HOME / Decorating
Printed in the United States of America
This text is dedicated to Denny Beasley (he knows the reasons why) and to Cristina Banks of the University of California, Berkeley, for all her support as this book was being developed.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1 What Is Environmental Psychology and Why Does It Matter?
Chapter 2 Understanding the Basics of Environmental Psychology
Chapter 4 The PlaceType System
Chapter 5 Adventurers and Guardians—Spaces for Enthusiasts
Chapter 6 Investigators and Sages—Spaces for Intellectuals
Chapter 7 Mavericks and Dynamos—Spaces for Catalysts
Chapter 8 Maestros and Mavens—Spaces for Wizards
Chapter 9 Creating a Place That More Can Enjoy
Chapter 10 Special Place-Related Needs
Chapter 11 Right Place, Right Time
What Is Environmental Psychology and Why Does It Matter?
What Kind of Home and Workplace
Are Best for You?
This can be a difficult question to answer.
Designing homes and workspaces is tough. Have you found yourself:
•Perplexed before a sea of paint chips at your local home improvement store?
•Wandering glumly through furniture stores?
•Endlessly cycling from one real estate showing to the next with an agent who is less and less concerned with finding you a home and more and more interested in getting you to buy something, anything, so the agent can move on to other clients?
•Decluttered and living in a string of desolate interiors?
•Opening your Pinterest account and just sighing?
The design-confused phase of your life is ending. You can take control of your physical world. The science-based information in the pages to come will show you how to create spaces where you and your family and friends can live your best lives.
With science, you can answer questions such as:
•What color should you paint your dining room?
•Should you use warm-colored light bulbs or cool ones in your office?
•How do shapes and patterns—on wallpapers, upholstery, or elsewhere—influence how you think in a space?
•How do room dimensions influence you psychologically? Can you use paint to make your living room feel like it’s a more comfortable size or shape?
•In what ways do sounds affect your mental state? How should you soundscape places where you need to concentrate or think creative thoughts?
•Why does smell matter? How can you use scents to relax and feel less anxious? Remember things? Boost your mood?
•How do textures influence you emotionally? What should your bedroom rug feel like underfoot?
AND, perhaps the most important question of all:
•How are your personality and the best design approach for you really related?
You can use science-based design to develop interiors that align with your personality and support your real psychological needs—places where you feel comfortable, or creative, or whatever else you have planned. The pages that follow are packed with concrete, science-based design insights—in everyday language—that can be used to help you craft places where you can achieve your life goals.
What Is Environmental Psychology?
Place matters—and