Ambient learning

Happy New Year!  I am continuing to share riffs on ideas from TrendWatching.com’s 21 trends of opportunities they recommend for 2021, and many are things to leverage in your search for your happy place. I started the new year with a topic from the list that is near and dear to me: Designed for well-being. Today I am continuing with  

“AMBIENT LEARNING  Spark learning through interior design….How can we engage with the world beyond our screens and teach ALL generations without preaching?”

What an interesting idea, isn’t it? An ambience for learning.

Have you ever walked around at night and admired peoples’ houses lit up? I don’t mean voyeurism; I mean just watching the buzz of dinner activity as you walk about the neighborhood. Or living in an apartment building and smelling all the different dinner aromas as you walk down the hall?  Or hearing unusual music as you pass by?

I love seeing houses of family and friends with their “curiosities” scattered about. A fossil or beautiful stone from a walk somewhere far away there, a telescope, photos of them in places I’ve never been, exotic escargot shells in the pantry, cloisonné, beautiful little treasures that hint at things to explore. 

I also love to see how people use a space- one friend’s family had a little booth in the kitchen to eat in and that seemed to bring their family closer together, literally and figuratively. Others had ping pong tables, tv rooms, formal rooms, play rooms, offices, music rooms, garages with workbenches to build, patios to cook out on, a cutting garden full of flowers, outside pizza ovens they built themselves, a sauna, and so many ways to make spaces for what was important to their lives that I had not thought of or tried.  

I am amused when children visit and immediately feel compelled to explore your whole house, even attic spaces that you cringe that they’ve gone into. They have all found the dresser full of cards and gifts I keep for when I need them last minute. Each kid emerges from that attic room asking if they can have things from it. Who am I to decline their curiosity of sketchpads so beautiful I haven’t yet dared to use them? Who am to not show them how to use a fondue pot or the treadmill?

When I see people engrossed in something unfamiliar, it makes me want to peak and see what had them captivated. Reading, building things, creating something elaborate, talking about ideas.  Hanging out in a maker space, wandering through a library or YouTube scrolling are obvious ways to immerse yourself in new ideas, but Queen’s Gambit and all the chess playing it’s inspired is another great example of ambient learning. 

All of this taps into seeing how others do things differently that might be worth trying. These are small ways to uncover what makes a place a happy place for you; what makes things soulful and enjoyable.

What ambient idea has sparked something new in your life? So curious to hear.

Best wishes,
Rose

Photo by Annie Spratt on Unsplash