Happiness (design) therapy

To better decipher this fundamental trend, Jaye Ana Mize, Head of the Home Decor division at Fashion bureau Snoops, looks back on some vital foundations and principles of neuroscience.

Well-being, design and neuroscience

How do colours, light, touch, sounds and shapes impact our brains? The answer lies with dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin, all self-produced hormones whose effects lead the dance to a life filled with excitement and pleasures. Concretely, how does this trend apply to decoration and interior design? While some collectives, such as Les Sismo and their motto “Design with care”, have been committed since 1997 to a conception of design thought around positive philosophy, other designers of the younger generation follow suit and engage for a cause. This is the case of Alexia Audrain from Nantes and her “OTO” hugging chair, which has become an ultimate go-to object for therapeutic purposes after appearing as a prop in a recent Netflix series. This flagship product, designed to relieve anxiety attacks for people with autism disorders, embraces the sensitive response the designer provides. It has become an item of desire from Korea to the United States.

Inhabiting self-care 

Interior designers are committed to better living from the object to its environment. “Taking care of yourself goes through the places where you live”, states IDEAT’s Deputy Director Olivier Waché. Imagery from “Casa Barbara,” developed by interior designer Sandra Benhamou, prove how the challenge of reinventing housing resort for seniors is here brilliantly met. “Entering Casa Barbara is like staying in a holiday or a family home”, adds Benhamou, who partnered with Parisian decorators Serge & Jérémie Trigano to break the codes of traditional retirement home interiors, offering a joyful and lively visual universe. 

Forget the bleak refectory; residents can enjoy a convivial and spacious central bar to enjoy the top-of-the-range dishes of the star Chef Pierre Gagnaire with their families and guests. The natural material favours naturalness, with a good deal of woodwork, terracotta and velvet. For colours, only warm tones: beige, orange, brown, sunny yellow, and a vast blue palette punctuate the decor. The mottled pieces with an extra soul are displayed here and there as a final touch. 

Another address associated with well-being and designed on a completely different model is the “Carita Beauty Institute” from the L’Oréal Group. An emblematic Parisian landmark for skincare since 1946, the place has just awakened from a makeover powered by the REV agency. For this very graphic project, all in black and white, the architectural duo Cristiano Benzoni and Sophie Thuillier have made lighting a matter of care in its own right, thought out to measure each space of the institute. Their goal: “Seeing yourself more beautiful than in any other place”. 

Art is the warmest colour

Feeding on beauty and thinking of each project as a revitalising painting is also a core motto for “GABA Gallery”. 

Created during quarantine, this new-generation online art space places colour at the heart of its collection for its beneficial values. Blue, yellow, purple... So many shades and emotions available to reinvent your interior and recharge your moral batteries.
“Blue is the favourite colour of city dwellers; it rhymes with escape. Purple is a deep, spiritual and feminine hue and yellow unanimously immerses us in a never-ending summer’s solar heat”, poetically notes GABA’s Co-Founder Alexandra Chevallier. 

Design, interior decor, art and architecture are numerous tools at hand’s reach to reinvigorate positive thinking. Thanks to the limitless power of contemporary creation, let your senses run free to find balance and peace! 

Footnote
"Chromatic Dance", an Exhibition at the GABA Gallery, curated for the Hôtel Grand Amour, will be held from March 31st to April 1st 2023.