Architecture and the Protective Frame

Architecture and interior design can have a significant effect on psychological state. Reversal theory helps to explain how and why design supports particular motivational and functional objectives — or fails to do so. Paratelic states require a protective frame; design can make it more likely that space-users in a paratelic state will have the desired experiences. Over the last fifty years, researchers in environmental psychology and related fields have identified sensory, psychosocial, and cultural factors that support confidence, safety-zone, and detachment protective frames as well as telic and paratelic states. Applying research findings in practice is complicated by the dynamic nature of people’s motivations and, in some contexts, by the nuanced variety of human motivations among space users. Knowledge of reversal theory should help architects and others to deal more systematically and creatively with these kinds of problems and to enhance human experience.