How Design Designs Us | Prernaa Mangla | TEDxNerul

Key Concepts

Interior design, functionality, aesthetics, human experience, storytelling, impact of design, designer's role, mindful design, human-centered design, personal transformation through design, project management, cultural sensitivity, business scaling.

Journey into Interior Design

Prena Mangla, creative director and founder of MWM Spaces, shares her 20-year journey in interior design, emphasizing how it has shaped her career and her as a person. She recounts choosing fine arts over conventional paths like engineering and medicine, driven by a passion to bring art and design to life in real-time spaces.

Early Challenges and Lessons

Mangla's first project, a turnkey project for a guard house, was a challenging learning experience. Despite failing to earn money, she learned crucial lessons:

• Hiring: The importance of hiring qualified labor.
• Finance: Always asking for advances from clients.
• Planning: The necessity of proper planning and timeline management.
• Client Management: The importance of not trying to please everyone.

Design as a Teacher

Design has been a significant teacher, providing deeper insights than any classroom. Mangla highlights experiences from building offices, restaurants, experience centers, homes, villas, and a meditation center.

• Office Design: Designing an office for 500 employees taught her about spatial planning and navigation.
• Restaurant Design: Working on restaurants provided insights into kitchen planning and the precision required in food preparation.
• Brand Values: Learning how brand values can be integrated into office culture through design.

Project Management and Cultural Sensitivity

Mangla gained experience in project management at 21 when she had to fill in for a supervisor, managing labor, electricians, and other workers. She also learned cultural sensitivity through designs for Japanese and Korean clients, understanding their specific preferences and aesthetics.

Business Scaling and Customer Behavior

Designing business centers, play zones, and experience centers taught her about business scaling. Building multiple restaurants provided insights into customer behavior and how to design spaces that cater to their needs. Designing play zones allowed her to understand child psychology.

Beyond Homes: Diverse Design Experiences

Interior design extends beyond homes, encompassing diverse projects like BMW and Mercedes events, Microsoft experience centers, and the Sachi Tupa light and sound show. These experiences broadened her understanding of different industries.

Balancing Motherhood and Career

Mangla emphasizes her love for design, returning to work just 10 days after delivering her second child. She acknowledges the support of her family and team in balancing motherhood and her career.

How Design Shapes Us

Design is not just about aesthetics but about functionality and experiences. Mangla argues that design transforms how we interact, talk, and function.

• Example 1: Mandir Placement: Placing a mandir in a fire-prone area can create chaos.
• Example 2: TV in Living Room: A TV can affect family time, either positively or negatively.
• Example 3: Decorative Vase: A vase that obstructs movement can cause stress.
• Example 4: Kitchen Islands: Open kitchens promote togetherness, while galley kitchens may not.

Mangla states that design is "30% aesthetic and 70% functionality and experiences." She cites the Taj Mahal and smartphones as examples of thoughtful and functional human designs.

Design's Impact on Individuals and Society

Mangla believes that design can shape individuals and society. Her experiences have made her more empathetic and understanding of clients' needs and challenges.

The Designer's Role

Designers can solve problems and improve lives:

• Clutter: Designers can teach organizing habits rather than just adding storage.
• Bedroom Colors: Colors can reduce stress and improve sleep.
• Furniture Arrangement: Proper arrangement can improve family interactions.
• Kitchen Lighting: Natural light can improve moods and energy.
• Showroom Design: Clear signage and navigation can increase sales by 10-20%.

Good design provides "breathing room" for thoughts and peace, helping to organize not just stuff but life.

Designer's Responsibility

Designers shape memories, foster love, and build careers through the spaces they create. Interior design is storytelling, with good spaces having rhythm, flow, and purpose.

Final Thoughts

Mangla encourages harnessing the power of design to inspire, uplift, and empower. She emphasizes the importance of exploring the relationship between humans and design to create thoughtful, intentional, and human-centered designs.

"Design is not just about what we create but what create us."

She uses examples like automation (making life easy but also lazy), elevators (speeding up tasks but reducing physical activity), and smartphones (increasing efficiency but decreasing attention span) to illustrate how design impacts our lives.

Mangla concludes by urging designers to design thoughtfully, to solve problems, to empower, to uplift, and to create a better world, emphasizing that someone is waiting for a space that only they can bring to life.