The Emotional Language of Materials
Interior design is often described as a visual discipline. We talk about color palettes, silhouettes, proportions, finishes, and furniture. We photograph rooms from carefully considered angles and judge them through images on screens. But an interior is not actually experienced as a photograph. It is experienced by a body. We walk across its floors. We rest our hands on its surfaces. We feel whether a chair is hard or yielding. We notice whether a room is acoustically quiet or full of reverberation. We register temperature, smell, weight, resistance and texture. We notice how materials age beneath our hands and feet. This is why materials have an emotional language. That language is not as simple as saying that timber means warmth or marble means luxury. Materials do not possess fixed emotional meanings. Their effect depends on context, culture, memory, craftsmanship, and the way the body encounters them. A polished marble floor in a grand entrance can communicate ceremony and permanen...
