How Does The Interior Design of Learning Spaces Impact The Students` Health, Behavior, and Performance?

Abstract

The importance of research: human beings are greatly affected by their surroundings, especially in learning spaces. Lighting, colors, seating arrangement, and other factors all have a physical and psychological impact on students, which is reflected in their behavior, and performance.Research problem: Although there have been previous studies that have linked a student's behavior to the interior design elements of the learning space, there is no extensive, combined study that can guide the design of university educational spaces to achieve the highest possible efficiency for the students.Research Objective: Set criteria to assess the learning space; this standard states whether or not a learning space can provide an appropriate learning environment that can help students physically and psychologically.Research methodology: (theoretical approach) relied on a review of previous theoretical and practical studies to gather sufficient information to determine the criteria for evaluating each element of the educational space and how it impacts students, this is shown by presenting definitions of human behavior and how it is influenced by the built environment, and then used to illustrate how the interior architectural design of the educational space impact students, reaching the ideal status for each element in the final table. (analytical approach) in which a questionnaire was conducted for students as a field study and then analyzed for results.Results showed that many existing educational spaces have problems with interior design elements. Some of these problems, such as lighting, ventilation, and temperature, can be avoided from the beginning by orienting educational spaces correctly and thus obtaining adequate natural lighting, ventilation, and temperature without having to rely on industrial means. Noise can also be reduced if a suitable location away from the noise is chosen, as well as careful selection of finishing materials of sound insulation material. Table 8 shows additional means of isolation that can be used in existing spaces. On the other hand, the color of the white wall, which many studies have confirmed harms the space users of students and teachers but is still used, is a problem that is easily avoidable but still recurring. It is preferable to use cold or warm colors instead, as shown in Table 8. The significance of this research is in assisting in the creation of a suitable educational space that meets the needs of students while avoiding all of the problems mentioned above in many educational settings.