Abstract:

Material, Furniture, and Products play a major role in creating space and one's lifestyle. COVID-19 pandemic has increased the awareness about mental health issues and how Mindfulness approaches can assist in cultivating and maintaining wellbeing. Mindfulness concept can be viewed from two major viewpoints: Eastern and Western. The Eastern viewpoint is rooted in Buddhism and contemplative practices like meditation. The Western viewpoint believes that mindfulness can be achieved by being engaged and active, which keeps the busy brain asking questions, not giving it the chance to think about the unknown, which causes stress. By understanding the two major cultural viewpoints of Mindfulness, designers can combine two ideas into a single universal idea, that can help them in selecting materials, furniture, and products to develop spaces for mindfulness practice. These researchers started their investigation by conducting surveys concerning the psychological aspect of Mindfulness. By researching human interactions and behaviors between user and perceived environment or object, one can begin to understand important factors of engagement in practicing Mindfulness, such as ideas of form versus function or haptic and psychological feedback through materiality and color. Caivano, (2004), indicated that emotions and feelings influence opinions and perception of colors. Caivano’s research inspired this team to further investigate how surveys of people’s interactions and behaviors can feed design of all scales from form/function to UI/UX. These researchers wanted to determine proper approaches for selecting materials, furniture, and products for Mindfulness environments which can positively impact users from all backgrounds and cultures. These researchers used a mix methods approach for their research, including literature reviews, case studies, as well as detailed surveys. Data collected was analyzed using AEIOU framework. In this paper, these researchers will share their research process and outcomes. The insights gathered through this research can be applied not only to built environments but also to support healthy habits for practicing Mindfulness.

Keywords:

Mindfulness, Design, Western View, Eastern View, Universal Design, Materials, Furniture, Products for Mindfulness.