Designing Lived-In Environments

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to make environments that feel lived-in, hospitable, and "homey". I thought it would be better to collect those thoughts in a persistent thread that could be useful, rather than a Discord chat that will disappear. Feel free to use this to have a continuing conversation about environment design!

Right now, my main project is a courtyard on Batuu. It's meant to be a gathering place for the Followers of the Force, a market area that serves as a hub for the local community.

 

For research, I've naturally been watching and reading a lot about Galaxy's Edge, after I had the privilege to go last December. But I've also been thinking about spaces in general, and noting what I see in real-life examples of spaces like the one I'm trying to build. 

Here's a few of the central features I wanted from the outset:

• The Suggestion of More: I want doorways and staircases that lead off into new spaces, implying more than what the viewer can see, making it all feel more real.
• Lots of Dwellings: I want to suggest that people live here, have personalized it, and have history.
• Purpose: I want all the details to have a reason, even if it's in-fiction decoration. Everything should be explainable, even if the explanation from a character would be "the person who designed this was an idiot".
• Tasks: People have thing they're doing, routines.

 

 

Today I went to the St. Louis City Museum, a kind of sprawling playground built in an old industrial tower. It had a lot of examples of the kind of behavior I wanted my build to unconsciously encourage, and the kinds of visuals I wanted to evoke. Examples:

Flow of traffic

People relaxing

Busy-ess, but not clutter

(The City Museum is basically a theme park, so it shares similarities to Galaxy's Edge. But I'm also not designing a space that I want to feel like a Theme Park, so I'm bearing that in mind.)

 

Some of my big take-aways:

• Busyness at different heights: having faces and activity at different tiers of height helps create that sense of activity and "more than you can see"
• Shade and Benches: Seating and comfort is essential if you want a space people are going to hang out in. The design of Galaxy's Edge intentional omits benches so they can move more guests through, and it sadly makes it a space people can't just vibe in. Trees and greenery are huge too.

Some changes I'm going to make to my build:

I want to create an intentional space with awnings and shade coverage, and also benches. It should be a relaxing place. Maybe, if the benches are stone, it was originally meant for meditation and just became a gathering place overtime because it's pleasant.

 

I'm going to change up this corner to make it a shaded balcony or terrace space, so some characters can be moving along it or looking over the rail, to add that height activity.

 

 

That's all for now! I'll keep adding thoughts as they come. Feel free to do the same!