Nussbaumer, Chapter 10

Fig. 1-This office added elements that give it
more of a homey feel. Wood, rugs, and casual chairs help
to create the space cozy and comfortable. 

In Nussbaumer's chapter 10, commercial design and its elements are explained. Commercial is drastically different than residential design. However some of the same elements and factors are still applied. Today many commercial buildings are wanting to incorporate the coziness and simplicity of a home (Fig.1).

Fig. 2- The picture of this hotel is not
located in a tropical place but
is located where people still find
these colors and foliage relaxing.

Commercial design is a very broad load of design areas. Corporate offices, retail buildings, hospitality (restaurants, hotels) buildings, health care offices, education buildings, religious buildings, and cultural (museums and historical) buildings are all areas of commercial design.  Commercial design has many more elements that apply to large groups of people because they're spaces serve such large groups of people. This makes diversity in commercial design especially important (Fig. 2).

A commercial space must be as diverse as the people that use the space. So this means proxemics, anthropometric data, and many other preferences must be considered. People of different generations, races, genders, and religion must interact together in harmony within a commercial space. The designer is tasked with the job to figure out how this will work within a commercial space.

Proxemics considers an appropriate balance of personal and interaction space. The designer must realize that these spaces are important for productivity and keeping certain people comfortable in an area. Offices might have an open plan, but will incorporate private offices or breakout spaces for individuals or smaller groups of people. Restaurants include a variety of seating to accommodate this as well. Using anthropometric data to utilize ergonomics with proxemics is another goal of a commercial space.

People have many different preferences for a space and how it will be successful. The designer's job is to read and evaluate these preferences and make a judgement call on how the preferences can be applied functionally and safely.

Color is a big factor with people and their preferences. Colors give off emotional responses. This means they can decide whether or not a space makes people distracted or productive, or more (Fig. 3). Depending on how diverse a space is, different cultures even prefer different colors. In class, we studied this more in depth with our Culture Psychology of Color renders.

Fig. 3-This school's working area
is filled with color but it could almost
be labeled as distracting with it
being so bright. 

Lighting is another factor with people and their preferences, and can even be argued that it is even more of an ordeal than color. Lighting affects health and emotional well-being (physiologically and psychologically), besides just overall aesthetic (Fig. 4). Poor lighting can even cause physical problems such as eyestrain and headaches. In our Building Systems class, we have just learned that lighting can affect multiple human factors, physically, mentally, and emotionally.

Fig. 4- This cafe, utilizes a significant amount of natural
light so as to keep it's customers focused and happy.
And it provides a great aesthetic to the space.

Lastly, one thing to note from chapter 10 is feng shui. Feng shui can also be applied to your home with residential design. Feng shui is meant to create an overall balance of your home, office, or hotel space to that of your mental side. Elements such as, soothing sounds, greenery, and certain colors are meant to help a person be in touch with their mental side in a harmonious way.

All of these elements, factors, and preferences are important with designing a much bigger space for a multitude of a variety of people.

Codes and laws must be religiously followed within commercial design because of the variety of people and the large number of people using a space. Ultimately codes make the space safer. Codes are also applied with residential design but there is not nearly as many and far much looser with execution. A person can choose to not have their home ADA compliant. However, a commercial space must be ADA compliant.