When a Design Exhibition Becomes a Scientific Experiment

In May 2024, visitors to the Königsaal studio at the Arcisstraße campus of the Technical University of Munich entered more than an exhibition. They entered a live experiment.

The project, supported by the Danish design company Muuto, was developed at the Chair of Integrated Product Design as a new research format we call an ‘exhibition-experiment’. For one week, members of the public could sign up, use specially designed workspaces created by our students, and participate in a controlled scientific study at the same time.

The goal was to test whether interior spaces can be intentionally designed to evoke specific emotional states.

Can Spaces Shape How We Feel?

Designers often speak about atmosphere, mood, or feeling. Biophilic design, which integrates elements of nature into built environments, is frequently described as calming, stimulating, grounding, or uplifting.

But can those emotional effects be intentionally designed and then measured?

This question guided the Design Project Biophilic Workspace. Student teams developed products and spatial concepts grounded in biophilic principles. They created stools, lamps, stationery organisers, pillows, and other workplace elements that used natural materials, organic forms, texture, and multisensory cues to shape emotional experience.

The students were divided into two teams:

• One team designed an activating room intended to energise and arouse users.
   
• The other designed a relaxing room intended to calm and settle users.

To evaluate these designs scientifically, we added a third space: a neutral control room. It was minimal, grey, and free of student interventions.

A Room Within a Room

The three workspaces were built inside the Königsaal studio using a room within a room setup. Each measured 3 by 3 metres.

The exhibition was open to the public. Over the course of one week, 28 participants took part in the study.

Each participant spent 25 minutes in the neutral room and 25 minutes in either the activating or relaxing room.

At the start of each session, participants sat quietly for five minutes. During this time, we measured physiological responses. After that, they were free to work on their own tasks. They could read, write, study, or work on their laptops while experiencing the designed environment.

Measuring Emotion

To understand emotional responses, we combined subjective and physiological data.

Participants completed questionnaires rating how they felt in each space. Self-report measures are common in emotion research, but they have limitations. People may respond in ways they believe are expected. They may also be influenced by the visible intention of the design.

For this reason, physiological data is essential.

Participants wore Empatica Embrace Plus devices during their visit. Unlike consumer smartwatches such as the Apple Watch, which are primarily designed for fitness tracking and general wellness, the Embrace Plus is a research-grade wearable. It is widely used in clinical and scientific contexts because it provides high-resolution data on skin conductance, heart rate, and movement.

Skin conductance, in particular, is closely associated with physiological arousal and changes in the autonomic nervous system. This allows researchers to capture emotional activation beyond what participants consciously report.

In addition, we recorded spatial behaviour using 2D and 3D cameras. These recordings are being analysed using AI-based tools developed as part of the project.

What We Found

The first results from the self-report data suggest that the design intentions were successful.

Participants rated the activating room as significantly more arousing. They rated the relaxing room as significantly more calming.

However, self-reported emotion is only part of the picture. Participants may have consciously or unconsciously aligned their answers with what they perceived as the purpose of the space.

This is why the physiological analysis is so important. We are currently examining heart rate and skin conductance data to determine whether bodily responses reflect the same emotional patterns reported in the questionnaires.

Beyond the emotional findings, the project generated methodological insights. Conducting controlled experiments inside a live exhibition introduces tradeoffs. Visitor flow and environmental variability increase complexity. At the same time, the setting allows participants to engage with the spaces in realistic ways, strengthening ecological validity.

Scientific Output

The project has resulted in three peer-reviewed publications in the Proceedings of the Design Society:

• McTeague C, Dreyer S, Liu S, Kizilkaya A, Thoring K (2025). Emotional responses to the design of multisensory interior spaces.
   
• Dreyer S, McTeague C, Liu S, Thoring K (2025). Design exhibitions as spaces for controlled experiments.
   
• Liu S, McTeague C, Dreyer S, Thoring K (2025). Towards automated video-based human behavior analysis: leveraging AI capabilities for spatial behavior detection.

The third paper received the Best Paper Award at the International Conference on Engineering Design in 2025.

Supported by Industry

The study was supported by Muuto, who provided furniture for the exhibition spaces.

Why This Matters

Work environments are increasingly designed around claims about how they make people feel. Yet emotional effects are rarely tested under controlled conditions.

The Biophilic Workspace demonstrates that emotional design intentions can be experimentally evaluated. It shows how exhibitions can function as research environments. And it illustrates how physiological sensing and AI-based behaviour analysis can strengthen evidence-based design research.

By combining student design, public participation, and scientific rigor, the project expands what a design studio can be and how it can produce knowledge.