Over the last decades, there has been much interest in preference for curved over sharp-angled contours in interior design. In light of this interest, Prof. M. Sinatra, with her colleagues, Arch. L.M. Barile, Prof. M. Petrelli, and the students of the Institute of Design, in cooperation with some colleagues from the University of Foggia, the Berliner Max Planck Institute, and the Polytechnic of Tirana (Albania), are conducting empirical research on this phenomenon by investigating the effect of interior space contour – curvilinear vs. rectilinear – with experts (designers) and non-experts.
Participants rate photographs of living rooms – half on a dichotomous beauty scale and half on a dichotomous willingness to enter/exit scale – to indicate if it is a space they would like to enter or leave. Further assessment instruments, such as personality tests, are added to provide a more complete picture of such an effect. Descriptive statistics, regression analyses, etc., are run.
The authors foresee the publication of the research in indexed journals.

The research project, with a three-year duration from a.y. 2022-2023 to a.y. 2024-2025, aims to promote scientific culture in the field of design by engaging students and teachers of the First Level Academic Diploma Course in “Design” at the IDD of Matera in pathways that, through planned strategies, foresee the correct combination of the rigorous language of science and that of design as an expression of the ideative-creative processes involved in the investigation of productive reality.

The educational impact of this project, which focuses on color design and lighting techniques in various contexts – residential, urban, educational, work, etc. – concerns the structuring of professional profiles more suited to meet the needs of various brands and, more generally, to face the challenges of the most recent demands of the labor market.

Scientific-disciplinary sectors involved in the Research Project: ABPR30 (Material Typology – Technology of New Materials); ABPR17 (Design – EcoDesign – Product Design); ABST47 (Style, Art and Costume History); ABST48 (Design History); ABTEC37 (Methodology of Visual Communication Design), ABST58 (Theory of Perception and Psychology of Form); ABAV01 (Elements of Morphology and Dynamics of Form); ABST50 (History of Contemporary Architecture); ABVPA64 (Exhibition Design – Exhibition Space Design).

Year I:

• State of the Art
• The History of Color
• Elements of Vision Physiology
• Bibliography and Scientific Contributions

Year II:

• Synesthesia
• Color and Light in Living Spaces (home, school, work and hospitality environments, hospitals, etc.)

Year III:

• Color and Light in Outdoor Environments

Seminars, Conferences, Conventions, Workshops for Dissemination of Research Results

Collaborations with Other Public and Private Research Bodies, National and International