Privacy

Personal privacy is a key component of every person's everyday life. Privacy can be exemplified in physical and psychological aspects. For example, you can physically have privacy in the comfort of your bedroom while having psychological privacy by not making eye contact with other individual's walking around a shopping mall. The General Data Protection Regulation calls for "privacy by design". What "privacy by design" means is that personal privacy is taken into full consideration throughout the engineering/design of a building.

There are generally four faces of privacy- solitude, intimacy, anonymity, and reserve. Solitude would be spending time on your own in a peaceful state. For me, solitude can be achieved by taking a run in the evenings/ early mornings when no one is around. Intimacy is another form of privacy that includes a couple or tight nit group of people. Some intimate moments can be achieved in dimly lit restaurants with private booths like cheesecake factory! Anonymity is being alone in a crowd of people. This would be similar to not making eye contact while on a crowded bus or elevator. Finally, reserve is a psychological barrier that prevents communication with others. In today's world, the most common of these barriers is the blank stare at the cell phone to avoid any social contact. 

When walking through a public space with lots of people, eye contact is often avoided. If eye contact is made, it becomes a unspoken social rule to greet that individual. This is often the face I make when accidentally making eye contact with strangers...
Image retrieved from Twitter

Privacy is meant to give sense of control, allow emotional release, create self identity, and encourages healthy communication. Because privacy needs are so universal with little differences between cultures, there tends to be a universal unwritten rules of etiquette. Within a space like a library, there are unspoken rules of etiquette within the space. For example, individual's come to the library to study and focus and often reserve private rooms to work in. If someone were to barge into this private room and sat down to start chatting, it would be breaking the unspoken rule of privacy to be maintained within that space.

The use of cell phones in public spaces to provide a sense of privacy and reserve has become a normal response to social situations
Photo taken by me of my sister

Overall, privacy is a basic human need. It allows for uninterrupted contemplation, rejuvenation, creative expression, recovery, concealment of self, and concealment of illicit activities. This basic human need is a universal concept, and without it causes a good deal of stress. It is important as a designer to address "privacy by design" and allow individuals to have the privacy they need to thrive within the space.