Design for subjective well-being in interior architecture

Can interior environments engage people in pleasurable and meaningful experiences and thereby have a positive influence on their happiness? This paper discusses why and how interior architects might want to consider implementing ideas in relation to ‘design for subjective well-being’. Despite of people being the ingredients that bring life to the built environment, it tends to be designed in such a way for them to predominantly only passively absorb the surrounding. Up to date, when designing interior environments, (interior) architects are mainly concerned about the fulfillment of various rather objective considerations. Typical reflections in this respect are: is there enough daylight, how are the acoustics, how is the accessibility and the organization of the inner space? Starting from such premises, the atmosphere of the inner space is given substance. However, empirical studies have shown that long-term happiness is less a matter of one’s circumstances than of the activities that a person engages in. Hence, one could go one step further from viewing th