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This Issue's
Featured Project
Julie has joined this year's Home Improvement Challenge hosted by LifeWorks in Austin. The Project entails overseeing the redesign and product stocking of a new apartment for a very deserving local individual in need. Terika Clemons grew up with an alcoholic mother and incarcerated father, but her obstacles in life have not diminished her goals to gain an education and a financial footing to be able to help others. LifeWorks is stepping in to provide a stable living environement for her and her son to give her an advantage to achieve her aspirations.
Julie and her team have been planning Terika's apartment for weeks now, and will execute the design and furniture and accessory placement on September 24th. We will post pics of the finished apartment makeover next month!
Team JEI is still taking donations for Terika's new home, and if you are interested in making a contribution, you can go here. After
you click on the link, select "TargetLists" on the far right box,
and then click "search". Find the box in the center where it
indicates to search by Organization and type in "Lifeworks".
Hit "go" and you'll see a list that demonstrates we are
not the only team to come up with this great idea! Click on the
"Lifeworks Board of Governors HIC Team" and you can make your
selections.
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________________________ Award-winning designer, Julie Evans, Allied Member, ASID, and owner of JEIDesign in Austin, TX, is known for her skills in interpreting her client's tastes and developing their ideas to surpass their expectations. Her enthusiasm, diligence, and discerning eye, coupled with over 25 years experience, have established Julie as one of Texas's top interior design professionals.
JEIDesign offers a complete range of design services - from collecting information to establish a design concept, helping organize the client's ideas and setting priorities, interpreting the chain of events in the construction process and aiding in each aspect of the decision-making process to ensure that the final product will reflect the total concept.
The firm's goal is to help all clients to achieve the dreams they have for their home!
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Dear ,
This special edition of our Newsletter pays tribute to "back to school" with a little bit of education on a new buzz word in our industry. Neuroarchitecture is being talked about and implemented in more and more home designer circles, so we think it high time you know about it, too! But, don't feel that you need to take notes- there will be no pop quiz at the end. Rest assured, we will always dilute any educational deliveries here with a healthy dose of entertainment and a dash of silly.
We also have some information on Julie's work in Austin's LifeWorks Home Improvement Challenge, and how you can also help make a difference in someone's life with just a minor contribution.
Have a safe and wonderful Labor Day!
JEIDesign
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Ennui and You Don't Know Why Neuroarchitecture: How Your Interiors Influence
Your Physiology
Have you ever thought that a
certain restaurant or friend's home just makes you "feel" a certain way. You may not be able to put your finger on
precicely why... it just does. Maybe the
cafe down the street makes a mean cup o'joe, but it also serves up a
heavy dose of ennui, and you just don't know why?
We have the answer. You're not off base to believe that the ambiance of certain spaces effects your mood and
even, at times, the way you feel physically. The acumen factory that is neuroscience has been all abuzz about a
spin-off field they have labeled neuroarchitecture. We write here a lot about various "moods"
evoked by different design elements, but we usually speak from the artists
within. Now, here's our inner Bill Nye's
take.
Please note that Bill Nye has actually not spoken on neuroarchitecture and is added here purely for dramatic effect- we know you understand.  |
Not to be confused with the
psychology of design (which has more to do with the psyche than our actual
physiology), the Academy of Neuroscience for
Architecture defines neuroarchitecture as "a discipline that seeks to explore the relationship between
neuroscience
and the design of buildings and other man-made structures that make up the
artificially created environment that most human beings live within... and
addresses the level of human response to the components that make up this sort
of built environment.""""""""" Doh, sorry, I nodded off there for a sec.
In terms I prefer to use, the digs in
your pad are scientifically shown to be the boss of, to some degree, your
emotions, your mental faculties, and even your health. Color, light, spacing and scale can trigger
stress, hormones, thought and calm. Depending on various factors like your body chemistry and genetic
predisposition, external elements will alter your state, and it's all unique to
you. What can anger one individual can
make another feel loved.
But wait! Before you decide you didn't come here to
exercise your left brain and click this closed, rest assured that that's as
scientific as we're going to get here. I
suppose I could go into more detail about the nervous system, oxytocin and
molecular biologogy, but that's not what you're seeking from our articles. And anyway, I'm more eager to tell you how
this new buzz word can effect you, and how you can use it to your advantage in
your home.
So, if neuroarchitecture is based
on the premise that artificial elements added by humanity have a significant
impact on the function of the brain and nervous system, then it reasons to
follow that the way you or your architect and designer create your environment
can dictate how you feel there. But how
exactly? Here are a few examples for you
to noodle.
A Tall Order of Creativity
Studies are revealing that higher
ceilings can actually boost creative thought and yield more innovative mental
process and ideas.
A 2007 study
conducted by a professor at the University of Minnesota revealed that people who completed a series of tasks in a
room with higher ceilings generated more ideas on different topics than did
those who were studied in a room with lower ceilings. And that, alternatively, a space with lower
ceilings encourages more specific and detail-oriented concentration, such as accounting
or jig saw puzzling.
The gist here: if you're brainstorming creative deductions
for your taxes, place yourself in a sports arena. But when it's time to crunch the numbers, move
to the cavernous pub around the corner.
The home owners of this home
designed by JEIDesign may find it easier to be innovative or problem-solve in their living room than their office.
Cornering your Fears
We are now also finding that the sight
or even thought of sharp angles trigger our fear response. Bare with me for a moment while we get a bit
nerdy... neuroscientists have found that the amygdala, which is involved
in fear processing and emotional arousal, was more active when people were
looking at objects with sharp angles. I think Tim Burton has been on to this for some time now.
But this doesn't mean that you need to
seek out and destroy every angular element in your home, or plan your next new
design project around marshmallows and teddy bears (unless you really want to,
we're down with that). But, you can
now be more in touch with how these elements may be affecting you and your
emotions. You can also incorporate softer
accessories into an existing edgy design scheme to calm this effect.
The room below could have been too angular and aggressive if the softer touches, such as the greenery and curved-back bar stools, were added to the mix.
Finding Focus in Your Fern
We bet you are already aware of the
rejuvenating effect a natural setting can have on your overall mood. But, did you also know that a number
of studies have shown that when people look at natural views, whether they're
real or projected onto a screen, their ability to focus actually improves.
The focus here: vacation.  |
People in lab coats report that the
modern world's aesthetic construct can foster psychological fatigue and even
depression, whereas taking in a natural view can have a mentally restorative
effect and enable more focused thought and decision-making.
But, we can't always run off to the woods for an
intellectual recharge. We can, however,
add pieces or reminders of the outdoors into our own surroundings to mimic the
effect and improve our daily concentration.
In this ideal example, the actual outdoors is featured in this hill country bath for a rejuvenating soak.
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Just as the green design movement
brought the arts and sciences together to give birth to a meaningful
improvement in architecture and interior design, so is this practice, once
again, contributing to overall harmony in our homes.
Even beyond our interior attitude,
neuroarchitecture promises to benefit future generations of school
children, hospital patients, office workers, and worshippers in sacred places,
since designers and architects will have the schemes for these environments
more carefully tuned to specific needs, desires and benefits based on our new
knowledge of this discipline.
We are only just beginning to understand how our noggins
process our environments, but we can't wait to see how this particular path of
neuroscience unfolds for the future of interior design. And we don't mind sharing our field with the
smarty pants. We actually think it's a
pretty nifty union of thought.
For more detail on any of the information provided here, please contact JEIDesign at 512.330.9179 or julie@julieevans.net.
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