Aesthetics and Psychological Effects of Fractal Based Design
Criteria: Specific application of biophilic design, excellent in-depth measurement of particular human psychological responses to the use of fractals in human-design
Key Takeaway: Unleash the power of nature in your learning spaces with biophilic design, specifically through the use of fractals, repeating mathematical patterns found abundantly in nature. This innovative approach, which was shown to significantly enhance human engagement, preference, refreshment, and relaxation, involves incorporating fractal designs into various elements of the indoor environment, such as carpets, walls, and even computer screens. The mathematical sweet spot? A mid-high level of fractal complexity is found to be the optimal balance, providing an enriching and comforting environment that stimulates and refreshes, without causing undue arousal or stress.
Summation and Insights:
It’s no secret that being in nature makes human beings feel wonderful – both stimulated and refreshed all at the same time. But not all of us are aware that the patterns we soak in as we experience natural bliss – viewing mountains, forest treetops, strolling down the beach and picking up a seashell to observe – are the product of repeating mathematical patterns found everywhere throughout nature. These mathematical/geometrical patterns are called fractals, and they are characterized by self-similar patterns repeating across scale, with varying levels of recursion (meaning the number of repetitions across scales). This mathematical definition of fractals is important not merely because it is the math of the universe, but also due to its practical application – it is reproducible in elements of human design, and thus can be incorporated into our indoor environments for our psychological benefit.
Designing spaces with fractals in mind is an aspect of biophilic design, which strives to connect buildings and design with nature as well as our inherent human connection to it. This biophilic turn also recognizes that many architectural projects have been rooted in Euclidean principles, or the mathematical language of basic geometry. But these sorts of spaces, with their underlying Euclidean grids, have been known to cause effects such as stress, strain, and even headaches – a process often attributed to the body’s visual system working overtime as it is forced to process artificial patterns. In contrast, fractal patterns reproduce the math of nature and can be beneficial when incorporated into our surroundings. This study focused on the incorporation of fractal design elements in three key ways: fractal carpet patterns installed in university environments (branded as “Relaxing Floors,” and created in collaboration with the Mohawk Group, one of the world’s largest flooring manufacturers), as wall patterns used to disperse light throughout a chapel (in collaboration with INNOCAD Architecture), and as computer screen savers (to be made free for personal use). (For those interested in a visual of these fractal designs, they can be found in Figure 4 on page 5 of this study). These fractal-based designs replicated effects of human connection to nature, and each of these design elements had a large, positive impact for the humans who interacted with them. Fractal design is thought to specifically affect human engagement, preference, refreshment, and relaxation, and was measured in this study along these rubrics.
This study was also notable for making particular contributions to the relationship between fractal design and human experience. For readers interested in the specifics of fractal design, what follows are some more details of their results. Fractal complexity, referred to as “D-value” in this study, appears to be optimized for human beings when it reaches a mid-high D-value level. When fractal complexity, or the D-value level is too high, it may promote psychological arousal (such as engagement, preference, or even refreshment), but flatline or even decrease relaxation. It is also the case that different subgroups of individuals may have varied responses to fractal complexity – the authors suggest that a mid-high level of D-value for fractal complexity and design is the “optimal balance” for engaging the widest range of humans regarding psychological engagement, preference, refreshment, and relaxation. In keeping with fractals origin in nature, interested readers may also wish to peruse this article in order to examine the statistical measurement and details of employing different natural patterns, i.e., a “global-forest” pattern, a “tree seed” pattern, a “bird flight” pattern, etc. In fact, one of the most successful fractal patterns in this study mimicked, in essence, the creation of a forest, utilizing a pattern which replicated the natural geometry of birds dropping seeds in order to create new trees and ultimately contribute to the production of a large-scale forest.
Year: 2021
Author: Kelly E. Robles, Michelle Roberts, Catherine Viengkham, Julian H. Smith, Conor Rowland, Saba Moslehi, Sabrina Stadlober, Anastasija Lesjak, Martin Lesjak, Richard P. Taylor, Branka Spehar, and Margaret E. Sereno
Primary Author: Kelly E. Robles
https://psychology.uoregon.edu/profile/kne