The Psychology of Space

When many architects design spaces, they often fail to take into account the psychology of the spaces they are creating and the psyche of the ultimate users. They tend to look at space reductively, so when they try to copy the success of a space and fail, they don’t realise that what they copy is the symptom not the cause.

To make an office more akin to a member’s club for example, it is not enough to look at the club and copy verbatim the finishes and the furniture and the lighting. What many architects fail to see in a members' club like Soho House is that the zany furniture and the co-working desks are an empirical manifestation of something much deeper: What it feels to belong, what it feels like to be part of an exclusive clique with like-minded people or people that you wish you looked like, people who are so cool that they don’t care about being impeccable, people who are so confident in their taste that their quirks are not toned down to avoid being judged. It’s such sentiments that need to be harnessed by design.

This is because architects seek inspiration, not by being attentive to the people they are designing for, but by looking at the works of other architects, be it through architecture books or websites or pinterest. When these architects visualise their spaces, they are not visualising them as they are experienced by other people, but rather how these spaces would be viewed (and awarded) by their peers in the profession.

But it's not only architects who design for their peers. Many property developers craft their briefs and buildings based on what their competitors are doing and on market benchmarks, not on what their target consumers may want.

This is why so much architecture is derivative: Because these designs are not predicated on the target consumers' needs and desires. A consumer-conscious design process is crucial for innovation.