Space Psychology for Sustainable Residential Buildings in the COVID-19 Era - Case Study: Egypt

Abstract

In recent years, pandemics have altered humanity in various ways. People were quarantined in their homes due to COVID-19 to sustain their lives, which necessitated that they alter their views of their homes to be able to live comfortably and healthily. During the long lockdown periods, homes were found to affect some of their users psychologically in a negative way. Some felt trapped, stressed, and uncomfortable in their homes. Thus, this paper aims at studying space psychology and how it can affect the quality of the indoor environment for residential units. This will be achieved by demonstrating the houses' three main interior elements: materials, colors, and natural lighting. The paper will strive to illustrate further dimensions of those three elements with regard to functional, environmental, economic, and sanitization in relation to the psychological dimension. Furthermore, it will assess the space psychology impact on Egyptians during and after COVID19 in relation to materials and colors. The study’s main finding was that unexpectedly, personal preferences and costs still domain the materials’ selections in Egyptian society. As for colors, neutrals prevailed as an indication of cultural effect and ease of usage