Psychologists have known for many years that colour can affect how people feel. For this reason, attention should be given to colour schemes when decorating places such as offices and hospitals.
How true this statement? How far colours influence people’s health and capacity for work?
Band 7
Colour is arguably one of the earliest things that we learn about. As we grow up, we develop preferences for colour, and these are shown in the decoration of our homes, the products we buy and the clothes we wear. As colours plays such a huge role in our domestic lives, it is inevitable that it will also affect how we feel outside the home, particularly in places such as hospitals and offices.
As a matter of fact, businesses have been aware of the impact of colour on employees for some time. The general view has been that if you work in an office that has too many colours and patterns on the walls, you will end up finding it hard to concentrate. Visitors may also be too taken up with the colours around them to focus on what they are doing.
Interestingly, however, there are some office areas that suit bright colours. For example, creative people often say they can carry out their work better if a room is painted in bold colours. In my university in Thailand, the creative room was painted entirely in yellow to inspire its users to come up with exciting and novel ideas. Students commented that they felt more energized in this type of environment.
While work is about output, hospitals are about the health of patients. Clearly, bright colours would be less welcome on hospital ward where patients are trying to recover from operations (ca phẫu thuật) and illnesses. Here, relaxing shades (tông màu) are needed, such as pastels (màu nhạt, nhẹ).
Having said that, some hospital areas are the opposite. Unlike adults, children need some form of entertainment, and walls painted in bright reds and oranges with pictures and posters can achieve that. Similarly, doctors and nurses might welcome brighter surroundings when they are taking a break from work.
As far as I am concerned, there is a direct link between colour and mood. This means that designers should think about who will occupy a building and decorate its rooms in such a way that the occupants are able to get the best out of their surroundings. (347 words)
Band 8 +
Colours have pervasive use (dùng rộng rãi) in countless spaces in the human life. Especially in the art of design and architecture, different shades are artistically distributed to not only create aesthetic look (vẻ thẩm mỹ) for the building but also influence the health and working productivity (năng suất lao động) of people utilizing the facility. This is especially true in offices and hospitals.
The fact is that colours in the office influence its occupants in various ways. Golden colour represents royalty in many countries, which can create an impression of luxury in visiting business partners and may improve the success of business deals. As for artists, figuring out a good blend of colours is the key for success in their career, and thus displaying colourful artifacts (tác phẩm) or masterpieces (kiệt tác) in their offices can stimulate (kích thích) their inspiration and creativity. However, bland colours can facilitate concentration, so they are favoured by intellectual workers or scientists who need the simplicity of the surroundings to avoid distraction in their work and enhance working capacity.
As regards hospital’s decoration, colours are mainly used for medical purposes. The white or grey shades are widely used in hospital spaces because they represent the hygiene or cleanliness of the facility. Such colours do not only indicate sterilization (sự khử trùng) of the rooms but is also used to keep patients alert. Especially in cases where the patients need to fight their fatality and not to pass out, white or grey walls and ceilings will be a wakening tool (giữ tỉnh táo). It can be understood that colours rather than white and grey often impact people’s feeling, so perhaps to prevent inpatients (bệnh nhân nội trú) from being moody, colourful decoration is avoided in hospitals for the sake of people’s emotional health.
In conclusion, colours of the room somehow exert invisible forces (tác động vô hình lên) on people’s work and well-being. Therefore, proper colour schemes (sự phối màu) are often chosen for the workplace according to people’s jobs and their customers’ needs. (306 words)
