The ASID Foundation has a number of annual scholarships and grant opportunities available to expand research and knowledge around the impact of interior design on behavior, health, and well-being. Meet the 2022 ASID Foundation scholarship and grant recipients.
Director of Connected Environments Research Lab
Colorado State University
Dr. Leah Scolere (PI)
Research Project: Co-Designing for Neurodiversity in Museums: A Community Engaged Learning Project
Dr. Laura Malinin (Co-PI)
Research Project: Co-Designing for Neurodiversity in Museums: A Community Engaged Learning Project
Museums have been called to focus efforts on underserved visitors such as neurodiverse individuals (NIs) including those who identify with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) community and often experience heightened anxieties navigating museums. As museums become increasingly hybrid spaces which leverage both digital & physical experiences, our project explores the role of designing across the digital-physical spatial continuum to empower NIs to independently prepare, navigate, and experience museums. Interior designers can play a vital role in expanding the spatial resources available pre-visit and during the visit to a museum.
We propose a community-engaged project with a research component that focuses on co-designing for neurodiversity in a discovery museum to advance education, research, and tools for hybrid interiors. While prior work by design researchers has called for the importance of designing for ‘sensory well-being' across all environments (Park et al., 2020) and there has been a focus on examining technologies such as virtual reality (VR) to support inclusive museum experiences, interior design students have less frequently had opportunities to design with neurodiverse stakeholders to enhance the inclusivity of interiors. Through a co-design process, interior design students will partner with NIs to use 3D Space-Capture technology to transform the existing museum into an immersive digital twin model. This will result in the production of two key deliverables to expand the inclusive hybrid museum experience including 1) 3D Socio-Spatial Story and 2) 360 Virtual Tour. In addition to the spatial prototypes, student learning outcomes will prioritize designing with NIs and evidence-based design approaches.
Rana Hassan Bazaid, Student ASID
Thesis: Exploring the Connection Between the 14 Patterns of Biophilia and their Potential Restorative Effects on ICU Nurse Burnout and Stress Levels
Nurses in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) experience high levels of stress and burnout; a significant number of nurses leave after only one year. Several studies have suggested that hospitals need to take action to prevent future nurses from burnout to protect their health.
The objective of this study is to explore the use of biophilia theory (exposure to nature indoors) to increase positive sensory stimulation on ICU nurses to reduce burnout and stress levels.
To address these issues, this article analyzed current literature on the 14 patterns of biophilic theory through stress recovery theory and stimulation theory as catalysts to propose potential applications of biophilic theory in hospital settings in nurses facing burnout and stress.Results: Using stress recovery and stimulation as catalysts, the literature on the 14 patterns of biophilia identified by researchers is analyzed to determine proposed benefits to physical, mental, and behavioral well-being that might be used to reduce nurse stress and burnout in ICUs. Next, designs are proposed that can benefit nurses and help reduce their stress and burnout. These designs are separated into four categories: courtyard, the layout of the surgical ICU, nurses’ workstations, and their breakroom. Conclusions: There is a conceivable cause between the physical environment and nurses' burnout and stress, as shown in theoretical assumption and lecturer review. The findings suggest that having biophilic patterns in the physical design of the ICU unit, workstation, and breakroom could play both a direct and indirect role in influencing emotion.
Oliver Vallerand
Book: Unplanned Visitors: Queer Subversions of Domestic Space