How Anthropometrics Shapes Interior Spaces and User Comfort

All right, we are going to talk about anthropometrics in this next section. We're going to talk about how people and places relate to the field of interior design and how this category can be extremely important when it comes to designing spaces for our clients. Now, anthropometrics is a measurement of the human body, and I'll explain this in more detail as we move forward.

This includes the size, shape, and weight or mass of anything related to the human body, related to size, shape, weight, distance. And to design environments, we need to understand this. And we need to understand this because all of the various measurements that we are collecting and designing for, the furniture, the doors, the windows, the materials, all of them have to work with the client or the individuals that are inside that space.

If we're going to design an office, we want to make sure that that office is as productive as possible, right? We want the chairs to be ergonomic. We want there to be natural lighting. We want to understand the ergonomics of the various design solutions that are in there.

Now, there's two types of anthropometrics. There are two types of dimensions, right, related to the human body. There are structural dimensions and articulate.

And let's think of structural as static measurements, right? I am six foot zero inches tall. That would be a structural dimension. My arm is exactly 32 inches long, right? These are dimensions that do not change, right? We know these dimensions.

And if we know these dimensions, we can design furniture and elements that work for various clients, depending on who's going to be using the space. Now, this is where it gets tricky. Articulate dimensions are dynamic dimensions.

Think of range of motion, right? Putting your hand on top of your head and tapping your head and then putting your arm down and, let's say, touching a table. Or imagine sitting at a desk. Let's look at this image here that shows an individual sitting at a desk.

Look at all the different dimensions that need to be considered in just designing an office, right? The distance between the individual's eyes and the computer screen, it changes because you're not sitting in the same position constantly, right? That would be an articulate dimension. Even the dimension of how the articulate dimensions of the hands and the arms and how they move throughout the day using the keyboard, using the mouse and various aspects of that surface that you're doing. So, understanding both structural and articulate dimensions is going to help you become a better designer.

In fact, designers like Herman Miller and Knoll, you may have heard of the furniture companies, they are experts in this subject. And the reason why they're experts is their job is to design, let's say, a chair that is the most productive possible, right? And trust me, a good chair with great ergonomics will certainly make you more productive, right? Imagine the chair that allows you to be pain-free for a full eight-hour day, or the chair that you're constantly focusing on that lower back pain, right? The designers who design these chairs that are so ergonomic, they consider anthropometrics. They understand it, and they work with these dimensions.

And that's why some of this furniture is so articulate that the chair can move and alter heights and dimensions and widths, and it can sway one way or the other, or it can be static. I mean, they make it versatile, and they make it on purpose, because they know that every individual using that chair has a different structural dimension. So, they have to make the chair adapt.

This is a whole other world of interior design, right? Working with anthropometrics to design an office or any other space, right? So, the next time you look at a space, think about, or a design, an interior, think about how the person uses that space, and think about how many dimensions are structural, right? And think about how many dimensions are constantly dynamic. They're always moving, right? Makes it more complicated. It's not easy to design for this.

Now, if we were to break down the various zones that you may consider designing as an interior designer, we could look at four major zones. And the first zone is an intimate zone, which is designing a zone that has, let's say, there's two individuals sitting next to each other. That distance is roughly zero to 18 inches.

This is a rough measurement. These aren't exact numbers. But if you think about a loveseat, right, and two individuals sitting together, or a hammock, where two people are possibly sharing a hammock, this could create an intimate zone.

So, the designer intentionally created this zone designed to be in close proximity with whoever is in that zone. Now, if we expand from that, and we go into what's called the personal zone, this is where the distances start to vary a little bit, right? Designed for 1.5 to, let's say, four feet. Public bench, lounge seating, a dining area, right? It's a personal space where people use to interact.

And they are in decent proximity of each other, but it's a little bit more spread out than, let's say, an intimate zone. Now, a social zone is a zone that really designs for individuals to be four to 11 feet apart. And these are social spaces like, you know, bars or restaurants.

Now, public is designed for 12 foot or greater. And these are large public spaces like museums or parks. Now, looking at each of these zones as a designer, it's very possible for these zones to overlap, right? You may have a public zone, a park, and there's a personal zone where there's a park bench sitting, you know, inside that park, and that's okay.

The thing to think about is what's the intent of the space that you're designing, right? Did the designer intend this to be a personal zone, or is this intended to be more of a public zone? And in that zone, are there opportunities to create additional zones that could work with the larger zone? I'll show some examples in just a second. Each zone may have a completely different function, right? Which is how it's used. And obviously, zones can overlap.

And understanding anthropometrics will allow interior designers to design spaces to meet these functional needs, right? Designing a park is a lot different from designing an office chair, right? They're very different functions, and so understanding these zones can help us be as efficient as possible. So, this beautiful image here of the hammock, there's a couple different zones here. Yes, we have probably a personal zone mixed with an intimate zone.

And you can see the proximity of where individuals are. It's intentionally, if someone sits on the chair and another person sits on the pillow, you may have a personal zone there. At the same time, there's an intimate zone created on the sofa bed in the back and the hammock itself.

This zone was not intended to be a public zone, right? So, therefore, when you are designing the space as a designer, you're intentionally spacing objects, furniture, to be a certain distance based on the zone that you are intending to create. Let's look at a personal zone, right? A dining table, where you can see that individuals may sit fairly close together, but there's a little bit of interaction. This is not designed for an intimate zone.

It's also not designed for a social zone, although it could overlap. We could argue that this is borderlining a social zone, and that's okay. But we could also argue that this is not a public zone, right? It's going to be a mix between a social and a personal zone.

Now, what about a social zone, right? This could be a coffee shop where people are interacting, right? And there's personal zones inside the social zone. I think the important thing here is to understand that it depends on what you're designing, so you can understand what the best zone is or what the most appropriate zone is for that particular design consideration, right? Now, if we move from the social zone and we look at a public zone, we can see that the spaces are much more wide open, and it's designed for pedestrian traffic to move through. Now, can an individual stand next to another individual, give them a hug, and create an intimate zone within this public zone? Absolutely.

But the intent of this space is to be a public zone. Now, you could even argue that there's a personal zone on the stairs where individuals can sit and kind of chit-chat, get to know each other. And this goes to my point earlier that zones do overlap, and there's nothing wrong with zones overlap.

The importance is that you're thinking about it as a designer. You're thinking about how people are going to use your space. If you're the designer of this courtyard, you know that there are, let's say, two or three different zones happening, and you know where they're happening so that you can design it appropriately.

And this is so the space can be used to the fullest extent, right? Now, in the next video, we are going to go over your second project. I hope you enjoyed the first project, and we will talk about the next assignment in this course. Thank you so much.