Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Lenora1945 — Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:56:17 GMT

We recently moved into a home with Vaulted Ceilings and an open loft in the Great Room Area. What a difference in our attitutes and our pets' behavior, they are actually playing.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

PLudwig — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 21:09:37 GMT

I think that this makes a lot of sense.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Katharine — Tue, 05 Jun 2007 16:01:41 GMT

The height of ceilings can impact people deeply on a psychological level but another factor that much of American construction has lost sight of is the scale. Things built on a human scale, particularly those that are fractal on a human scale visually and psychologically embrace and raise man rather than diminishing him. Orientation is also a very important factor, both for practical reasons pertaining to heat, light and airflow but also for human mental and physical well being. Much of what was built before the modern age of architecture put these principals into practice very effectively and thus gave us many of the world's most beloved structures.

Jane Jacob's book: "The Death and Life of Great American Cities" and
James Howard Kunstler's book: "Home From Nowhere" are great starting points for a "big picture" examination of how architecture, orientation, scale, etc... not only effect the functionality of spaces but the social relationships and mental health of their inhabitants.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Savagegrace — Wed, 30 May 2007 00:46:11 GMT

Pardon me but......

The answer is also related to left and right brain function.

A small space for some people will prevent spatial functioning of the right brain.

They will be "forced" into almost constant literal left brain thinking.

While a large open space will allow spatial recognition to kick in more often, allowing a sense of connectedness.

If you feel claustrophobic in a small space, pull out a dollar bill and turn it upside down and study it. This should cause you to "kick" into spatial mode. Your "cramped" feelings will evaporate.

This by the way is a common trick for forgers to "kick" to spatial mode to verify their "artwork".

GS

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

minnie-me — Tue, 29 May 2007 23:56:45 GMT

It's all in the presentation and architectural design.
Frank Loyd Wright built his homes around the natural beauty of the land. Fallingwater, which sits over a waterfall (water runs through a portion of the living room) is located in the Laurel Mountains in Western P.A. What amazes me is the notorious low ceilings in most of the rooms. The house is cantilevered over the stream, and has several terraces that overlook God's glorious nature. Ceilings are low to draw you to the outdoors...and they truly do. I felt the closeness of the ceilings in some rooms, but immediately was drawn to the windows which are situated so that you see tree tops from wherever you stand.
I used to live in a house with a 24 ' vaulted ceiling and I loved the openness. But I would trade it in a heart beat for rooms that tandemed with "organic nature" as he phrased it.

BTW, I don't think it was a coincidence that Frank Loyd Wright was short in stature!

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

raedeus — Tue, 29 May 2007 12:55:58 GMT

Ceiling height affects the way you think hey? Well, most people with high ceiling most likely live in a nice home and are financially better off anyway.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Pebbles — Tue, 29 May 2007 11:10:38 GMT

I have a cathedral ceiling in my living room and I love it (except for some cobwebs) It feels very freeing to me, Like I'm outside and that's good in the winter.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

RonaldHLevine — Tue, 29 May 2007 06:34:50 GMT

A machine shop owner had his office inside a large metal building that was the shop. All of the other offices had an eight foot ceiling, but his was amazing. It was a rather small room with a ceiling that seemed like about thirty feet! There were taxidermy birds suspended by very thin wires as if flying above. The room had details and features of being outdoors. I wonder if that was condusive to creative thought or design or business thinking or deal making.

I know that is not the point of the article. I try to extract out what is useful to me. Perhaps ceiling height has more influence on buying decisions of the average person. I have little interest in influencing people with anything other than facts, but I do acknowledge politics is often a beauty contest and such things as speaking voice quality can appeal to many shallow people where someone would say after a speech: "Isn't he wonderful?" and I would say: "Why, what did he say?" And she would say: "I don't know, but isn't he wonderful?" Silly Earthlings!

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

wetherbee333 — Thu, 17 May 2007 21:40:19 GMT

Our house has 15+ ft vaulted ceilings, windows from floor to ceiling, no blinds except in the bedrooms. I switched to CFL blubs as soon as they came on the market, because I'm a watt miser, not because I knew of the benifits written in this article, but after reading this, goody for me!
But, It still doesn't seem like enough light,and I prefer to be outside.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Bridestein — Thu, 17 May 2007 17:23:20 GMT

And all this time I thought it was changing to a healthy diet that was making me feel better when really it was just moving out of a house with 7' ceilings and into a house with 8' ceilings! Does this mean I can drink mochas again? ;-)

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Zambini — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:37:56 GMT

Lived in a farmhouse growing up - I think it was 10 ft ceilings. The rooms did feel big and airy, but they were too. Then I moved to a house where at 5'10 I could touch the ceilings. It did feel a bit oppressive, but smaller rooms came with the lower ceilings.

We are now in a home with standard 8' ceilings. All are white and expansive, and I'm very happy with them and the size of the rooms. I feel I can be either abstract or specific depending on what is needed, without working at it. I am interested in how they determined the difference in thinking though, more specifically, but didn't see them in the article.

I have noticed a trend to higher ceilings, but am not interested. #1 energy cost. We are very energy conscious and don't like the idea of all that heat getting stuck feet above our heads, or having to pay to have ceiling fans push it back down again. #2 Cleaning - I don't like dust, and can easily reach my 8 foot ceilings to keep them dusted.

I am more interested in whether the rooms with the taller ceilings also happened to be larger rooms in general. I'm happier working or living in a 12x12 space, regardless of ceiling height (assuming above 6 foot) than in a 4x4 space.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Carily — Thu, 17 May 2007 16:21:06 GMT

Living 2 years in an apartment with only 7' ceilings felt very oppressive, but I didn't realize how bad until I moved into a place with 9' ceilings. Huge lift in my feelings instantly - very hard to describe that instant and amazing effect, and that has continued over the 8 years we lived here. I'm about to build a house with cathedral ceilings as the higher the better for me.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Russ Bianchi — Thu, 17 May 2007 15:35:14 GMT

Height alone doesn't do it for me, but the 'whole package'...color, light, perspective, temperature, sound, freshness, etc.

re: Does the Height of Your Ceiling Affect the Way You Think?

Katy B — Thu, 17 May 2007 14:35:01 GMT

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