ENVIRONMENTAL ENRICHMENT
When you lack physical stimuli in your environment, your brain does not develop fully, making you have less resilience. In an enriched environment, you are less likely to get ill, recover quicker from diseases and are more likely to get older.
What does an Enriched office look like? Together with Jenny Morton, Professor neurobiology from University of Cambridge, Govert Flint collaborated with a team of designers to create three meeting rooms that all contain Environmental Enrichment. An enriched office is an office that communicates with the body at at 5 different levels:
MOTOR
VISUAL
COGNITION
SOMATOSENSORY
CIRCADIAN RHYTHM
According to Jenny Morton, enrichment is different to each person. A way to find out what enrichment suits to what person, is to offer people three types of enrichment. Therefore, three meeting rooms were designed. Alissa van Asseldonk came up with the idea to devide the rooms based on Howard Moskovitz insights in diversifying pasta sauces: Plain, Spicy and Extra Chunky.
CREDITS
Scientific partner: University of Cambridge, Prof. Jenny Morton
Design Team Enrichers:
Alissa van Asseldonk, Nienke Bongers, Luuk van den Broek, Govert Flint, Govert Geerts, Aliki van der Kruijs, & psychologist Florijn Vriend
Also with designs from:
Michiel Martens & Jetske Visser, Chris Kabel, Arnout Meijer & Roos Gomperts
Study trip by: Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie
Photos: Mark Kuipers & Bart Brussee
Cambridge video: Ziggy Pictures
Product video: Ronald Smits
PLAIN
PLA
PLAIN
In the plain meeting room, stimuli are soft or small. The Moonraker stools provide movement from the hips (Motor). The Blue Sky Lamp of Chris Kabel mimicks daylight (Circadian Rhythm) and the Transpose coulisse of Aliki van der Kruijs and Roos Gomperts are designed to blur the image of people passing by on the hallway (Visual).
SPICY
In the Spicy meeting room, stimuli are that large, it invites you to interact with it. The Bala stools provide large movement that also require your legs to be active while sitting on them (Motor). The table top by Luuk van den Broek is painted with a UV light responsive vernish (Cognition). When sunlight touches the table top, it becomes purple, making an imprint of how the table is used. The Mirabilia wallpaper by Alissa+Nienke is made from a fringe surface, showing the airflows in the space and inviting you to touch it (Visual & Somatosensory).