Dimensions

Drafting the Blueprint: How The Research Took Shape

If you asked me when my AP Research journey really started, I wouldn’t say it began in a classroom. It began somewhere between airport terminals and old cities—while I was traveling and staring up at buildings that didn’t look anything like the ones back home. I’ve always been fascinated by architecture and the design choices that make a room feel grand, peaceful, or energizing. I didn’t realize it at the time, but those moments were the earliest “blueprints” of my research question.

As I moved into junior year, that curiosity kept resurfacing. One day I remembered reading something about how the color of a room affects people’s emotions—warm colors like red making people feel energized, and cool colors like blue creating calm. Then later, I came across another article explaining how curved shapes feel safer and more comfortable than sharp, angular ones.

But here’s what caught my attention: These studies were always separate. Color in one corner. Shape in another.

Two different blueprints that never got layered on top of each other.

That gap—the missing overlap—is exactly what led me to my topic.

Previous Research

Before I could build my question, I needed a foundation. I turned to articles from Google Scholar, JSTOR, Perceptual and Motor Skills, and Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts. And I started noticing patterns.

Researchers like Kaya & Epps clearly showed that color affects emotional reactions. Curved shapes make people feel safer (Bertamini et al.). Entire room contours can influence stress levels and comfort (Tawil et al.). But almost every study kept color constant while studying shape—or kept shape constant while studying color.

It was like every researcher was looking at one wall of the room instead of stepping back to see the entire space.

This inconsistency helped me narrow my topic:

Color matters. Shape matters.

But how do they work together?

That question became the center beam of my research.

Drafting My Research Question

After digging through studies, building out annotated bibliographies, and analyzing the missing pieces, my question finally took shape:

How can room geometry and color accents be used in architectural design to enhance comfort and preference in interior spaces?

It felt like the perfect fusion of my personal interests—design, architecture, psychology—and the scholarly gap I had identified.

Methodology

After digging through studies, building out annotated bibliographies, and analyzing the missing pieces, my question finally took shape: For my project, I knew I needed actual people to tell me how they respond to different color–shape pairings. So the best tool became clear: a survey.

What I’m collecting:

Images combining warm/cool colors with curved/angular shapes
Participant ratings on:
- Aesthetic preference
- Emotional response
- Level of comfort

Who is participating:

Adults aged 18+

How I’ll analyze it:

Chi-square analysis
This will help me see whether certain color–shape combinations are preferred more than expected by chance.

This method lets me test whether the interaction between color and shape actually matters—something that hasn’t been statistically measured before.

Why This Research Matters

We live inside design every day.
Rooms. Hallways. Classrooms. Workspaces. Hotels. Restaurants. The colors and shapes around us affect: Mood, Comfort, Energy, Focus , Stress Businesses—from Airbnbs to hospitals—pay thousands of dollars for interior design decisions that should be backed by research. But right now, they’re mostly choosing based on tradition or aesthetics, not data. If certain color–shape combinations make people feel more comfortable, calmer, or happier, then designers and architects can create spaces that truly support well-being. So why should people care? Because this research can change the way we build the rooms we live our lives in.

The Final Blueprint

We live inside design every day.
Rooms. Hallways. Classrooms. Workspaces. Hotels. Restaurants. The colors and shapes around us affect: Mood, Comfort, Energy, Focus , Stress Businesses—from Airbnbs to hospitals—pay thousands of dollars for interior design decisions that should be backed by research. But right now, they’re mostly choosing based on tradition or aesthetics, not data. If certain color–shape combinations make people feel more comfortable, calmer, or happier, then designers and architects can create spaces that truly support well-being. So why should people care? Because this research can change the way we build the rooms we live our lives in.