ILSE CRAWFORD — STUDIOILSE

Investing in

wellbeing

Our reality is something we make: the objects we

use, the spaces we live in. Our values are embedded

in these, for better or worse.

We’ve all used things that seem ill-considered, yet product

design is often discussed as a matter of style or ‘just’

aesthetics. We all can recognise when a space is careless,

soulless and yet interiors are still usually considered an

add-on, shoehorned into building projects at the end of

the process. That’s if there’s any money left. But why? Surely

‘life’ should be embedded in the brief from day one.

As an interior designer, there is often the sense that

so called ‘soft’ values matter less than the ‘hard’ values of

architecture and construction, as if the life within the

building is somehow secondary to the building itself. But

after all is said and done, the environments we use form

the backdrops to our lives. Our daily experience is built up

of the accumulation of small moments where interiors,

and the objects that make them, frame our daily lives.

So asking what are the activities we do every day, or

what spaces we, in reality, love to use, is pertinent.

Paying extra attention to these makes a huge difference

to our daily life. It can make the normal, special – for

public or private spaces.

The way we read objects and spaces is complex.

We read our external world through our senses. And it is our

senses – all 53 of them depending on how you slice them

– that give us not only the measurable information we

need but also the unmeasurable. They are another

intelligence. We are still primal creatures - even if we

increasingly inhabit a digital world. Our senses tell us if our

surroundings are well made, dark, light, hot, cold, as well

as what unmeasurable values they embody. Our senses

are the interface between who we are and our

environments. They are what make us feel alive; what

makes life worth living. The Aaltos said that they always

designed for the most sensitive person in the room. After

all, if you design for the most sensitive, everybody wins.

Ultimately, design is a tool that underpins our humanity.

How can we reintegrate these unmeasurable values into

the measurable world? This approach to design is clearly

not ‘just’ about the visuals, but about integrating palpable

values. It means design addresses the lived experience

and understands this from a physical and psychological

perspective, both individual and social. Of course, this extra

consideration for what makes life worth living shouldn’t only

focus on the end user. We are part of a bigger system.

Today, our responsibility as designers is to work for better

outcomes across the board — this is not only about

28