Creating a service design for happy sustainable homes using art therapy [poster]

Creating a service design for happy sustainable homes using art therapy [poster

Taking a softer approach: using photo elicitation to explore the home as a system for happiness and sustainability

Background Quality of life has improved dramatically over the last 200 years but this has also brought many consequences. Temperatures, sea levels and natural disasters have risen due to the increased intensity of human endeavours such as burning of fossil fuels and deforestation (IPCC, 2014). Current GDP based economies, being reliant on high levels of material consumption, continue to exasperate these issues with the excessive production of commercial products and waste. For example, 15 million tons of food and drink are wasted every year in the UK (Department for Environment Food & Rural Affairs, 2013). However, it is not just the habitability of our planet that is in demise. Approximately 450 million people worldwide also have mental health issues (World Health Organisation, 2001) and one in four British adults experience at least one diagnosable mental health problem in any one year (The Office for National Statistics, 2009). It is clear that we need to change our current practices to those that are both environmentally and emotionally sustainable

Using art therapy techniques to explore home life happiness

The home plays many roles in our daily lives. It provides shelter and a place to rest. It can be viewed as an extension of the self, portraying our hopes and ideals, and where we create our identity within society1. However, contemporary homes are filled with modern appliances that offer few opportunities for creative output or experience, reducing potential for self-reflection and psychological growth. This lifestyle of high consumption and productivity does not correlate with long-term happiness2 but engagement in creativity does3. Furthermore, art creation engages the emotional centres of the brain4 so can potentially be used to investigate and enhance happiness in the home. In particular, art therapy techniques (for example, art making in silence) can be used to trigger and explore positive emotions. Also, service design approaches (for example, experience journey maps) can facilitate the conceptualisation of new experiences, including happier ones. Based in the UK, this research will therefore explore how creativity can contribute to happiness in the domestic space by using approaches from art therapy and service design. A series of workshops, comprising family homeowners and later service designers, guided by the researchers, will use techniques from these fields to investigate how home happiness might be developed/facilitated. The first of these workshops tested the use of art therapy techniques. This paper will present initial findings from this, such as creating the right context for reflective art making, facilitating emotional expression and art making with a focus on positive family time

How can service design & art therapy create happy sustainable homes? [Poster]

How can service design & art therapy create happy sustainable homes? [Poster

Exploring design for happiness in the home and implications for future domestic living

Home can influence our happiness through the activities it affords. Furthermore, previous research has indicated commonalities between happy, and sustainable societies but many of current home practices are unsustainable. This research aims to explore design for happiness as a means to future sustainable, and happier domestic lifestyles. This paper discusses the first study in which photo elicitation method was used with home-­‐owning families to locate home happiness triggers. This method elicited photography of two representative days of the participants’ home life. Participants were then questioned in follow-­‐up semi-­‐ structured interviews. From this, happiness home needs were conceptualised and connections were drawn to happy sustainable societies. This paper discusses these results and identifies that strong family bonds, facilitated by time relaxing, socialising and pursuing interests together, are core contributors to happier, and sustainable homes. The implications for design for happiness in the home are also discussed and proposed for future work