Academic literature on the topic 'Interior decoration – Sociological aspects'

Illumination and well-being are important aspects of “Smart Living” today. Within the IraSME Network a consortium of four German and two Belgian partners therefore developed a low energy consuming light source integrated into home interior decoration

Colours are nothing but lights of different frequencies and wavelengths. Every colour is a kind of radiation and so, colours used for walls do have a profound influence on people living in the space. Important aspects such as decision-making, cheerfulness, calmness and vibrancy can be achieved by the right use of colors. Vastu, which is based on principles of energies and radiations, gives precise guidelines about use of colours depending on the directional aspect and usage pattern of the room.Colors according to Vaastu Shastra play an imperative role in bringing balance to our minds as well as bodies and to stimulate our energy. Therefore colors in a Home, Office, Factory, and Shop should be coordinated with the colors of respective planets and elements associated with different directions.Colors have a huge impact on our lives. Colors possess the power to lift our mood, raise our energy levels and increase our productivity. Vastu shastra prescribes certain floor and wall colors for the home to promote prosperity, good health and well-being. Colour scheme is an arrangement or pattern of colors or colored objects conceived of as forming an integrated whole or a combination of colours that has been chosen for a particular room

Textile, as a kind of universal significant material in the human history, becomes an increasing number of popular among the people. Besides, it has the double needs in the material in the interior decoration. With the rapid development of our domestic economy, people, in China, put forward to more higher standard for the demands of their indoor living, The soft decoration dominated by interior textiles has become the mainstream and main development trend of design field in our society. This article intends to analyze from the level of the texture feature, and from the four aspects to analyze the influence of textile texture in the indoor decoration: textile texture, the color of textile, pattern and cultural of textile, and the emotional of textile, meanwhile, around the texture features of the textile and extend the wide inspiration and thinking to the interior adornment.

<p>Creating green, energy-saving and environmentally friendly building products is the main theme of construction industry in order to achieve sustainable development. The study starts with innovations in energy-saving designs and energy-saving construction of a building’s interior decoration and other important aspects that use energy effectively, improve energy efficiency, as well as providing people with healthy, comfortable, natural and harmonious living and working environment, while realizing sustainable development of construction.</p>

<p>Creating green, energy-saving and environmentally friendly building products is the main theme of construction industry in order to achieve sustainable development. The study starts with innovations in energy-saving designs and energy-saving construction of a building’s interior decoration and other important aspects that use energy effectively, improve energy efficiency, as well as providing people with healthy, comfortable, natural and harmonious living and working environment, while realizing sustainable development of construction.</p>

Abstract In Rococo historiography, the first half of the eighteenth century is generally described as the golden age par excellence of decoration. The so-called major arts are often considered to have played a lesser role in its artistic development. The period is thus systematically associated with artefacts produced by artisans, hence belonging to a less dignified category in the artistic hierarchy. In order to investigate the ideological background of this assumption, the article focuses on the debates on art which emerged, mainly in France, in the 1740s. These highly biased discourses, targeting the so-called bad taste of contemporary French painting and interior decoration, shaped a vision of the first half of the eighteenth century of which many aspects were later inherited by Rococo historiography, especially in its relation to decoration.

Abstract In Rococo historiography, the first half of the eighteenth century is generally described as the golden age par excellence of decoration. The so-called major arts are often considered to have played a lesser role in its artistic development. The period is thus systematically associated with artefacts produced by artisans, hence belonging to a less dignified category in the artistic hierarchy. In order to investigate the ideological background of this assumption, the article focuses on the debates on art which emerged, mainly in France, in the 1740s. These highly biased discourses, targeting the so-called bad taste of contemporary French painting and interior decoration, shaped a vision of the first half of the eighteenth century of which many aspects were later inherited by Rococo historiography, especially in its relation to decoration.

This paper mainly elaborated the design concept of the humanized modern interior of EMU through the analysis of the ecological design of modern EMU. CRH2 type EMU was taken for example to discusses the important principles of ecological design from aspects of environment factors, modern humane ecological design, design methods and material technology. The requirement of recycling can be satisfied by the organic combination of the design concept of EMU, the overall layout, the decoration materials, the functional requirements and the manufacturing technology.

North Zhejiang residence is a typical Jiangnan dwellings. The indoor environment is an essential part to research north Zhejiang residential areas, it is not only close to people daily behavior, but also directly reflects relationship of people, architectural space and environment. Zhejiang characteristics of residential indoor environment base on five aspects was analyzed, such as geographic and climate, interior layout, decoration, color and furnishings. I also will clarify its internal evolution and development, and understand its rules to add a reference and thought to the construction of watery region culture in future

We believe that interior design has becoming more popular in this century nowadays. The purpose of this study is to design and develop multimedia application that can identify human behavior and preferences in interior design. Alessi and Trollip Instructional Design Model has been utilized as a methodology in this study which consist of planning, design and development. Heuristic Evaluation and User Acceptance Test has been applied in completing this experiment. Three multimedia experts selected randomly to identify usability problems that occur in the user interface (UI) design. After the refinement was made to the application, the User Acceptance Test was conducted to the user. A total of 60 participants at random selected from certain district of Perlis and Langkawi as a target user to participate in this study. The results demonstrate this multimedia application is effective in satisfying the user needs and demand of the decoration of their dream house. Thus, the researcher was able to identify user behavior and preferences in interior design. With three dimensional (3D) features that were applied in this multimedia application, it helps the user to feel more self-assured with their interior design. At the end of this research, the development of this application bring numerous benefits for both parties either the users or the developer in many aspects. Thus, the society will be disclosing to the use of technology in the interior design in this sophisticated era.

Plants are frequently used as design components for various types of interior settings. Design professionals may specify plants because of a subconscious awareness of the human need for natural contact, or as in may cases, such as in a "sunspace", because it is traditional to do so. Past studies by behavioral and horticulture researchers have documented human preference for plants, and have shown that plants positively affect people psychologically, but little research has been done to determine whether the use of plants in interior environments can influence human behavior. Interior plantscaping is a vital and expanding type of agribusiness, with millions of dollars being spent each year to install and maintain plants specified by design professionals. Plants are frequently used for clients in industry, health care, hospitality, retail, education, and in personal residences. Demonstrating that plants influence human physical behavior in interior environments would increase their value as interior design components, and provide a powerful sales tool to the plantscaping industry. Because of the potential importance of understanding more about the influence of plants in interior spaces on human behavior, this research examines whether user behavior patterns and spatial perceptions can be changed by the simple addition of interior plantscaping. This study was conducted to determine whether the introduction of trees and plants into an underutilized area of a newly constructed interior atrium would affect user perceptions of, and/or behaviors in the space. User perceptions of and activities within the atrium were recorded on questionnaires and behavioral maps, both before and after the installation of Ficus trees and Chinese Evergreen plants. Surveys were used to collect demographic information, suggestions for improving the atrium, and to determine user perceptions via the use of 13 polar adjective pairs on a six point semantic differential scale. Maps were used to record user behaviors on the lower atrium level where the plants were placed. The majority of data were analyzed descriptively by frequencies and percentages. Semantic differential analysis was done using two-tailed t-tests at p = .05. T-tests did not prove to be significant. There was mean movement of perceived perceptions from pre- to post-test. User behavior on the lower atrium level appeared to be affected by plant installation. A preference was shown for napping under the trees, and users spent more time on that atrium level when the trees and plants were present.
Master of Science

This ethnographic study describes the patterns of decorating in the study rooms of university sorority women. The primary method of data were collection was by means of interviews with sorority members. Observations and photographs of the study rooms of these members supplemented the interviews and provided validation for categorization purposes. A large body of research exists related to the effects and implications of sorority membership. Because much of this research is quantitative, it does not allow for the descriptive type data collected in the context of the culture which may be utilized in a qualitative study. The purpose of the present study was to document the decorating patterns of the informants and to identify cultural values and expressions of individual identity in the decoration of their living spaces. This study contributes to existing research on college student decorating patterns by relating the items used for decorations to cultural and individual values. In addition, it provides a detailed description of how the space in the study rooms is utilized. The data are also evaluated based on demographic information gathered. The results of this study indicated that the members of Alpha Beta sorority expressed certain cultural values by using similar items to decorate their rooms and by exhibiting common ways of using their living space. One of the values expressed by the members in their decorating was that of comfort, both physical and mental. Comfort was demonstrated in conditions such as the degree of tidiness of the room, the color scheme, the photos on display or the level of self expression available to the individual. Examples of identity expression were also evident in these study rooms. Items indicating personal accomplishments, items from personal collections and objects used for hobbies were found in many rooms. Conclusions drawn from this study were first, that the desire to decorate was nearly universal among the members of Alpha Beta sorority. Second, the desire for self expression seemed to be a significant motivation for decorating, although there was evidence of some peer pressure as well. Third, decorating generally, and decorating using a theme, appeared to be a behavior members embraced more readily over time. Interactions over time allowed for the cultural values related to decorating the study room to be acquired. This process is facilitated by the significance of the social network within the sorority culture. This study contributes to an understanding of how cultural and personal values are expressed in the study rooms of sorority women, and by extension, the values that could be expected in other interior environments.
Graduation date: 1999

碩士
中原大學
室內設計研究所
91
In addition to the need to effectively control user safety and proper use of decorative materials in public buildings, “Building Interior Decoration Examination Regulations” is issued to govern the practice as well as the practitioners of interior design profession. But in spite of the fact that public safety is somewhat promoted, the regulations have evoked many dubious aspects to professional interior design practices. That is, in many cases, regulations are interpreted into different directions, which hinder official examination processes and cause confusion to designers. Because of this, the safety control policy for interior decoration is not fully executed. Thus, it is necessary to scrutinize these regulations and clarify that which causes confusions. This study conducts such a scrutiny in terms of 1.drafting standards, 2.official examination processes, and 3.regulations. Under each category, two dubious aspects are examined and discussed. They include 1.professional jargons, and 2.problems relevant to the regulations. To achieve thoroughness in the discussion, practical cases are adopted for a three-step analysis by this study and the experts being consulted. First, relevant issues are discussed from the point of view of building codes, second, practitioners are consulted for additional comparison and induciton of the issues, and third, professional expertise from the governing agency are collected to finalize a final statement. This study concludes with a collection of amendments to some regulations.

The purpose of this study was to examine whether participants can form impressions and make inferences about a hotel based only on the physical environment or design of the hotel lobby. The study investigated how the interior arrangement, furnishings and other aspects of hotel lobbies influenced participants' first impressions and their inferences about the hotel as a whole. The lobby was selected because this is the first area inside the hotel that consumers see and therefore it is important for creating impressions. The specific objectives of this study were: to determine if the physical environment of the hotel lobbies could influence participants' overall perception of the hotels, to investigate what holistic perception participants reported about the hotels based on the design of their lobbies, and to investigate whether the physical environment of hotel lobbies is important in impression formation and in communicating the image of the hotels. In the present study, impression formation theory provided a theoretical framework for understanding how impressions were formed and how extended inferences were made. The theory provided the basis of understanding how people use physical environment cues to form impressions and make inferences about their environment. The participants of the study consisted of eight (8) males and 43 female undergraduate students enrolled during Spring Term, 2002, at Oregon State University. Instead of experiencing the real situation, participants were shown four (4) pictures of actual hotel lobbies and asked to form their impressions and make their extended inferences about the whole hotels based on the lobbies. The pictures selected showed variation in the interior space and components of the hotel lobbies, such as lighting, ceiling, floor, walls, architectural style, and furniture arrangement. The participants were shown one picture at a time projected on a screen in the front of the room. The order in which the participants saw the pictures was varied with each group to account for order effect. The pictures were shown in the following order; ABCD, DCBA, CADB and BDAC, one group at a time. Each picture was shown for approximately three minutes. After explaining the procedure to the participants, the researcher asked them to record their first impressions and make extended inferences about the hotel by responding to open-ended questions. They wrote statements about the first things that came to their minds when seeing the pictures of the hotel lobbies. Data collection took about 10-15 minutes for each session. The responses from the open-ended questionnaire were content analyzed according to themes that emerged from the responses for each slide. The emergent themes were reported and discussed based on the objectives of the study. Most of the impressions formed were shared by the participants regardless of their class standing, number of times they had stayed in a hotel recently, and their current major. Even though gender comparison was not made due to few male participants, the researcher observed that the males' impressions were more physical, whereas female's impressions were more emotional. That is, the males looked more at the design, available amenities and facilities, whereas females also commented on the friendliness, warmth and coziness of the hotel. When asked to, participants were able to form impressions about the entire hotels based on ambient factors in the lobbies such as lighting and cleanliness, and on design factors such as style and layout, space, color, architecture and other factors. Impressions were also made with regard to social factors, such as clientele and service personnel. Responses about the characteristics of the clientele ranged from families to business people, rich people and others. Participants were able to make inferences about the general atmosphere, cleanliness, type of customer service, available amenities and facilities, price of hotel rooms, possible location of the hotel, clientele, the size and decor of the guest rooms, and comfort and spaciousness, based only on their impressions of the hotel lobbies when prompted. They were also able to attach emotional, economic and physical feelings to their impressions. The findings of the study indicated that the environment of the hotel lobby might be rich in cues that are important in communicating image and suggesting impressions of the hotel. The study concluded that the design of the lobby might very well determine the approach or avoidance behavior of guests and potential guests. The quality of the environmental cues may also be important in communicating the quality and nature of service the hotel offers and the image it intends to portray. Therefore, in order to increase business, the environments of hotel lobbies should be designed to elicit approach behavior from guests or potential guests.
Graduation date: 2003

Previous research suggested that unlike marketing goods, marketing services required manipulating the physical environment as well as price, promotion, production, and place. This indicates a role for interior design in the marketing strategy of a service business. Research also indicated that little was known about the effect of the different environmental components, especially the color component on consumers' responses. Most color research in marketing is in advertising and packaging but most of it is proprietary and thus unpublished. The objective of this study was to analyze the effect of color on subjects' evaluations of a bank and its employees. The choice of banks was motivated by the fact that banks have a high degree of familiarity among potential subjects. An experiment was designed in which subjects were provided with an illustration of a bank's interior and asked to evaluate the service quality at that bank. The illustrations were computer generated and were identical except for the color scheme. The study used monochromatic color schemes, manipulating the hue (warm and cool) at two value levels (dark and light), generating four treatments (light-warm, dark-warm, light-cool, and dark-cool). A convenience sample of 486 college students, in two lower division classes, was used. Subjects were each assigned a treatment at random, and asked to rate the banks and their employees on eight criteria: reliability, responsiveness, competence, courtesy, access, communication, security, and understanding. The treatments were in the form of 5 1/2 X 4 inch computer printouts attached to the last page of a questionnaire package. The experiment was conducted at the beginning of class time and subjects were given directions by the class instructors. The experiment took subjects an average time of five minutes to complete. The study investigated the effect of color on subjects' evaluations of the eight dependent measures in terms of three independent variables: value, hue, and subjects' gender. The data collected indicated that value had more effect on the dependent variables than did hue or subjects' gender. Banks with dark color schemes were thought to be more reliable, more competent, and safer. Banks with a light color scheme scored significantly better in terms of courtesy and communication, and scales relating to access. In terms of hue, warm color schemes had a higher mean score on courtesy, while the cool color schemes scored higher on competence. Warm hues were found to be more aesthetically pleasing and more familiar than the cool ones. Gender yielded an effect only on the responsiveness variable where mean scores of female subjects were higher than males' scores. Although the study had some limitations the results indicated that there is potential for using specific color choices in bank interiors to foster a desired image. Specifically value can be varied throughout a bank interior to communicate different messages to customers. Dark values could be applied in the teller area to project the impression of safety and privacy that customers need. In the loan department light values can be used to communicate consideration and accessibility. Findings from this study can be of use in other service oriented businesses with role demands similar to banks.
Graduation date: 2000

M.Tech. (Interior Design)
Commissioned public buildings in post-apartheid South Africa exhibit a synergy between local craft and contemporary design in their interiors. Tasked with the design of buildings representative of a democratic South Africa, architects looked to the surrounding communities, recognizing and incorporating local craft skills and products into their designs. The buildings selected as examples for this study are the Mpumalanga Provincial Legislature (2001) in Nelspruit, the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature (2003) in Kimberley, and the Constitutional Court (2004) in Johannesburg. These have been selected as they are the three buildings commissioned after 1994 by the democratically elected South African government. This research aims to determine how national identity has been communicated and represented in the interior design of these public buildings, through the inclusion of local craft. As key public buildinqs of this time there has been considerable research done based on these examples in the field of architecture, notably by the authors Freschi (2006,2007) and Noble (2011), however, no research has been done in the field of interior design. By taking an interpretivist approach, this qualitative study seeks to find meaning and deeper understanding. Data was collected in transcribed interviews, observations in the field as well as a literature review. Qualitative content analysis was used to initiate a comparison between the interior design of the buildings. Through the use of crystallization as a methodology it attempts to offer a thickly described interpretation of three public interiors undertaken in the development of a national design identity. This study could be of interest to interior design students, interior design and architectural professionals undertaking similar projects and government departments interested in this field.

The research represents principles of projective-geometric design of illusory spaces and proposes a study about the relief-perspective which featured the applications of science and art to interior decoration and architectural spaces during the sixteenth and the seventeenth century. The research has analyzed a selection of figurative and built illusory spaces, going to deepen the formation of the concepts of perception and illusion. During Renaissance was given emphasis to projective methods, of which were investigated the principles of geometric and optical ones in the proportions and in the visualization of architectural works, and the use of projective system accelerating or slowing the effects of the natural perspective to modify certain environmental aspects, external and internal, to the built volumes. The research also compares two major applications, the relief-perspectives of Francesco Borromini and Giovanni Maria da Bitonto and their partnership in the design of the perspectival tabernacle in Bologna and in the perspectival gallery for the Spada palace in Rome.

This chapter presents a cultural history of the eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century building tradesman in Britain, Ireland and North America, focusing on his social identity and professional class; the textual and visual representations of the building trades in contemporary print culture; degrees of social and professional mobility; and the means by which the builder promoted and self-fashioned as an arbiter of architectural taste. Of particular importance here is how the reputations of tradesman were characterized in social and architectural discourse at a time when concerns were raised about the quality of speculatively built urban domestic architecture (in terms of aesthetics and sound construction); a discourse predicated on the emerging architectural profession and its corresponding demand for authority over all aspects of design and building. Taken together, the themes of this chapter provide the cultural backdrop for an examination of the artisan’s relationship to house design, to interior decoration, and to real estate advertising.