Psychological needs in the built environment

Abstract

We assume that the built space—as part of the physical environment—has the power to affect basic human need fulfillment. Accordingly, we investigated how design features of the built space within a physical environment contribute to this effect. In two studies, we used computer-aided design to manipulate the degree of privacy, clutter, and biophilia as well as color temperature of the environment in study spaces, then measured need fulfillment (total N = 314). In Study 1A, participants (N = 260) felt more inclined to enter private study environments than nonprivate ones and felt more competent, autonomous, and related to others in private environments. Some participants (n = 227) continued on to Study 1B, in which they preferred to enter warm, cluttered, biophilic environments and felt more competent, autonomous, and related to others in warm and cluttered environments. In Study 2 (N = 54), we investigated the effects in a virtual reality office setting. The participants indicated that they felt more competent, autonomous, and related to others in more cluttered environments than in empty ones. At the same time, they felt more related to others in biophilic environments compared to nonbiophilic environments. The findings provide the first evidence that the built environment affects need fulfillment.