Spaces that make us feel safe – neuro-architecture, friendly space station design, and why it’s a good idea to turn down the radiators in the bedroom.
Designing for people, not fashion
A graduate in interior architecture and design, Coopernicus interviewee Dr. Joanna Jurga tells how graduation was not the end, but just the beginning of her adventure with space. Although Dr. Jurga had completed more than a dozen business projects, she felt that there was a desire in her to take up research work, to create something of her own. Although she valued working with clients, over time she began to feel burnout in this formula.
When Dr. Jurga began considering doctoral studies, she became interested in looking for a department that would integrate architecture and design. After searching, she ended up in Gdansk, where she began to realize her ambitious goals. Her dream was to create a space that was not only aesthetically stunning, but also had a positive impact on people’s mental and emotional health. Cultural, ethnic or anthropological conditioning are just some of the factors that can influence someone’s decision about the final look of a space. She wasn’t interested in standard discussions of architectural styles such as Japanese or Old English. Instead, Dr. Jurga focused on neuroscientific research, trying to find stimuli in space that would automatically put people in a state of relaxation and emotional balance. This unique research, later led Dr. Jurga to also engage in the study of space in the context of the space industry, proving that architecture has a significant impact on various fields.
“How to educate and design in a way that supports people and doesn’t just cater to the dictatorship of the eye, that is, to fashion,”
Places that give a sense of security
During her doctorate, Dr. Jurga quickly discovered that people’s biological preferences do not coincide with cultural ones. A good example is how we heat our apartments:
“Poles, for the most part, have very overheated apartments. And, in fact, our brains like the cold,”
She tries to convince others that the temperature in the bedroom should not exceed 20 degrees, and the optimal temperature is 17 degrees Celsius.
“It’s hard information to take for us,” says Dr. Jurga. “Unless we are forced by our electricity bills, rather than by our own preferences,”
She also notes that, especially in new development, we have very limited daylight, and the development is very dense.
“I always laugh that once we see the neighbor’s wine labels from across the street, it’s already very bad,”
Dense housing is not only a lack of privacy, but it also has a negative impact on eyesight. It is beneficial for people to be able to look far into the horizon. This helps with the eye’s accommodation, so that vision is lost more slowly with age. The same is true for spaces where there is a lot of greenery. Dr. Jurga says that green environments, both outdoors and indoors, increase concentration by as much as 18 percent. Another important aspect is artificial lighting, which should mimic the sun’s cycle and be in sync with how people naturally function. The best light in the evening is warm light and no exposure to blue light, such as that from TVs or cell phones.
It’s also very important to combat noise, especially for residents of large cities, where sounds are plentiful, at all times of the day. Dr. Jurga stresses that hearing works without the use of the will, and thus registers even those sounds that over time, a person no longer notices:
“If we grew up near the tracks, we no longer hear the trains. But every time a train passes, our nervous system tenses up,”
It’s also necessary to rest in silence, and the struggle for that in the city is very important.
“Silence or noise cannot be seen, so they are much harder to sell in visualizations. Urban layout, type of facade finishes, amount of greenery, spacing of buildings, and traffic intensity all influence noise and silence. And we know from research in New York that urban noise can shorten life by ten years,”
Dr. Jurga, also notes that design still focuses on a classification based on the five basic senses, despite the fact that it is now known that humans have more senses.
“But just within these five basic ones alone, there are already a great many issues that we could take care of,”
Neurodiverse design
Currently, Dr. Jurga is working on establishing a unit to study neuro-architecture in Poland. She wants it to bring together neurodiverse people and researchers from different fields. Dr. Jurga recognizes that neuro-architecture is a relatively young field, not yet fully systematized, especially in Poland. In her role as an educator, she wants to spread awareness of this innovative approach in space design. Creating a new unit, her goal is to create public spaces tailored to the various neurological needs.
A fascinating example of the application of neuroscience in practice is space stations. Dr. Jurga notes that the use of this knowledge makes it possible to design spaces even in the most extreme conditions, which significantly improves the quality of life and people’s chances of survival.
“We have a Polish astronaut who is to fly to the International Space Station (ISS). We will use his biometric data and his experience on the ISS,” says Dr. Jurga, who collaborates on many space mission projects. She adds that in two years we will land on the Moon again, where this knowledge can prove to be very beneficial.
Space projects
“We know from people who have been in space that space stations are designed for survival. Engineering-wise they are designed brilliantly, but Scott Kelly, an American astronaut who spent a year on the ISS, said it was a kind of white prison,” Dr. Jurga says. Describing what such a space station looks like, she mentions a number of factors that can negatively affect the astronauts’ sense of well-being: harsh white light, huge amounts of cables and bags that create visual disarray, and a lack of windows. An additional challenge is the sixteen sunrises and sunsets that disrupt the astronauts’ daily rhythm. Already in a demanding environment, there is also the issue of adapting to the lack of gravity and the constant noise. Machines ventilate and squeal nonstop, and the air is very dry.
“Our research is all about adapting these basic stimuli – light, humidity, noise reduction. If only through earplugs or the way we choose color to break up the whiteness. In the case of space, these are actions on such micro movements, but where it’s possible we try to introduce stimulus mitigation,”
Now, together with Justyna Puchalska, they decided to take up the challenge and submitted a project to the largest network of analog space habitats. Their goal is to explore the effect of changing the quality of space on levels of cortisol, the stress hormone. They want to find out what happens when only visual changes are made to the environment using advanced virtual reality goggles. Will the visual transformation of space alone be able to alleviate the feeling of being trapped in a boundless white sphere? This question opens the door to a new area of research that can help improve the quality of life in extreme space conditions.
Innovative activities and the challenges behind them
For Dr. Joanna Jurga, the biggest challenge in her passionate work is not only discovering new scientific areas, but also fighting for funding and convincing investors to support innovative solutions. Obtaining grants becomes extremely difficult in the field she is involved in, due to its broad scope and relative newness.
“There is no field of design, there is conservation, and there are fine arts that have nothing to do with what I do. So even legislatively we have a challenge in getting non-business resources and sharing that knowledge,”
Additionally, some investors prefer to base their decisions on the solutions they know, avoiding the risks associated with new solutions. Joanna emphasizes the lack of willingness to go beyond the beaten path of design, not only in terms of aesthetics, but also long-term responsibility. For her, it is important to create spaces that not only delight the eye, but also positively affect the health and comfort of users, without forgetting long-term sustainability.
“I have this feeling that multidisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity look great on the banners of universities, but that they don’t translate directly into funding,”
Mindfulness in both design and daily life
In addition to her design work, Dr. Jurga is also involved in the practice of mindfulness, which she has cultivated for more than two decades. She is the author of Mindfulness Notebook (Notes Uważności, in Polish) where she combines her knowledge of design with her personal experience as an educator. Through short personal texts, included in the Notebook, she encourages people to practice mindfulness on a daily basis, showing its impact on their personal and professional lives.
“The ability to be attentive and empathetic are the most important qualities of a designer. We don’t design for ourselves. We design for others, through ourselves and our experiences,”
In the hustle and bustle of a fast-paced and perpetually busy world, Dr. Jurga, notes that there is less and less time and opportunity to simply be with oneself. She adds that for her, mindfulness is not limited to sitting on a cushion while meditating, but that it manifests itself in everyday life, during simple activities such as washing dishes, dancing or playing sports. While performing these repetitive moments of daily life, she encourages focusing on the breath.
“Quality breathing is not taught to us by anyone, and it is the most important activity we have to do after birth,”
Astronaut training, for example, shows how important it is to manage stress and practice mindfulness, and the great impact this practice can have. It’s what she tries to teach others outside of her work connected to desigin – to be present in the body and breath, reducing the stress of everyday life.
Fot. Unsplash
