Creating a Sense of Belonging in Your Living Environment
How do you turn a house, a unit or living quarters into your home? Relocating, moving, or downsizing your home is one of the most stressful life changes. The question is, how do we create a new living space suitable for occupants when there is a loss of familiarity in their environment and lifestyle? Your…
How to Bring Biophilia Design into your Home?
Biophilia is a design style that brings nature into the interior spaces of our homes, creating a calming environment with visual and sensory connections to nature. It simultaneously benefits and improves the occupants’ wellbeing and health. Oliver Heath writes of five easy ways in which to bring Biophilic Design into your home and the benefits…
Understanding Biophilia Design
A design strategy named ‘biophilia’ was identified in the 1980’s. The term translates to ‘love of nature’. An American biologist, Edward Wilson, was the first person to write about Biophilia, which recognises the innate link between man and nature. Humankind’s lifestyle was initially hunter gatherer, then agrarian, then industrial, and now technological, yet our DNA…
‘Disability Need Not Be an Obstacle to Success’
Professor Stephen W Hawking wrote in the Foreword to the Summary World Report on Disability (2011) ‘disability need not be an obstacle to success’. Hawking acknowledge that he was very fortunate to have first class medical care and a team of personal assistants who created accessible environments and accessible means for him to become a…
Can Smart Home Automation Assist People with Disabilities?
We use many electrical systems to control our home environment. Some of them are: home alarm system; television and audio system; security cameras; sprinkler system; access to property from roadside; access at front door for staff providing services; locking doors; and turning on lights. When you combine all these systems using one interface, with multiple…
The Science of Identifying Colour Code Standards
Since 2004, Natural Colour System (NCS) has been South Africa’s colour standard. It is used by architects, designers, material manufacturers, the colour industry, product manufacturers, and retailers all over the world. NCS is also used in Sweden, USA, United Kingdom, Spain, and Norway. NCS is based on the science of how we perceive the four…
Why is Interior Disability Design Important?
In a world of approximately 7 billion people, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates that one billion people will be disabled during their lifetime. This is a significant number of people! Who are able can benefit from a universally designed interior environment. Visual impairment is the largest disability group approximately 39 million people (WHO 2010)…
Interior Disability Design Guide 