During the autumn, our founder Franz James successfully defended his doctoral thesis at HDK-Valand (the University of Gothenburg’s Academy of Design and Crafts) on how the design of the interior can impact the well-being of clients and patients in involuntary care.
Franz has developed a design research method, “Sketch and Talk,” to get closer to people’s experiences of the physical environment. He uses a sketchbook during the conversation instead of a camera and/or an interview form.
Additionally, meetings always take place in the client’s own room rather than in a meeting room. Franz mostly sits on the floor and sketches since using a chair would mean sitting at a higher level than the participant. “It’s about being a fellow human being when meeting someone in their private space.”
One clear outcome of Franz’s research is that interior design and architecture must be created from the inside out, from the patient’s/client’s room and outwards, not the other way around—from facade and entrance to individual rooms. Moreover, Franz argues, “You cannot design environments for involuntary care solely based on a brief. You have to be on-site, and you need to ‘borrow’ people’s lived experiences.”
We at Healsafe Interiör are proud of Franz’s contribution to research and are hopeful that this will lead to more secure AND healing environments in involuntary care in the future.
More information can be found in Franz James’s thesis “Sketch and Talk” – See button below.
