The Best Lighting Tip You’ll Read all Month!
Do you want to sleep better? Adjusting your lighting during the day is a key feature in helping you have a better night’s rest. Switching up the lighting, also helps you concentrate during the...
Designing for Creativity
Recently published research confirms links between thinking creatively and being in less energizing spaces. Needle and Mallia report that “Open-office plans have become the dominant mode for creative workplaces, designed to encourage collaboration. . ....
Workplace Views
We all know what we see affects our mindset, but which views are best and why? Elzeyadi’s research focused on preferred workplace views but his findings can be applied in other contexts. He reports...
Making BIG Spaces
If you want people to feel welcome and comfortable, especially in commercial environments, you would do well to pick up tips from Noble and Devlin’s recent study. The bigger the better it seems, makes...
Enjoying Mingling
Article after article is trumpeting how much people are enjoying interacting with others again or how much they long to do so (see this one, for example: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/17/insider/working-empty-newsroom.html ) Of course we’re glad to...
Living alone together
Recently, there’s been more attention to people, generally those getting a little long in the tooth, who are choosing to have relationships with others but not marry or move in together (see this article,...
Summer / Winter / Seasonal Stressors!
At this time of year you’re likely to be experiencing particular environmental stressors. Humans are most comfortable, our moods are good, and our brains work most effectively, when temperatures are around 70 to 72...
What’s up and What’s down
We think a lot about the vertical surfaces (walls) in the spaces where we find ourselves, but not so much about the horizontal ones, the ceilings and floors. Science is clear about how they...
Probably worth it!
In the fourth of our articles this month looking at the different design options you can try to improve your home at different price points, we suggest some tips and furnishings which cost a...
More elbow grease than cash required!
Most of us need to paint from time to time and depending on the colours on your walls now, you might decide that repainting sooner is a better idea that waiting. Have a look...
Really Low Cost
In the second article on designing the space to live the life you planned, we look at how you can change your home or office which will cost very little. Your house or office...
Design changes that are FREE!
Some changes you can make to your home or office can have a powerful effect on your wellbeing but are essentially free. Here is a useful list for you The single most important...
The Design Plan
Deciding on what to design first when you’re conscious of the size of your purse. Even the most organized of us, the ones living lives ordered beyond even the imaginations of mere mortals, only have...
How to alter your VR experience
Here’s a question for you! Did you ever visit a virtual reality environment while in different physical spaces and think your virtual experiences were different in each real life place? Research indicates that you’re...
Early experiences affect us more than recent ones
Have you ever gone somewhere where you had a good time a few years back? Or revisited a place which was associated with a bad memory? It turns out that those early memories really...
Live near Greenspace – If you can!
The more greenspace we are surrounded by, the happier we are. Kwon and colleagues report that “By measuring the urban green space score (UGS) from high-resolution satellite imagery of 90 global cities covering 179,168...
Symmetry in Nature
Symmetry matters and can be good, even in natural scenes, but too much can put us off. We’ve previously reported on the implications of viewing symmetrical arrangements of things here. Damiano and colleagues report...
Colours and Taste
Regular readers of The Space Doctors will already be aware of the weird fact that the colours we surround ourselves with or look at while we’re eating affect how much we eat. for instance,...
Finding our way around after GPS!
Have we become so dependent on our SatNav? Researchers have learned that using GPS-type systems affects our fundamental ability to find our way from one place to another. Knowing about these findings may encourage...
Round or Spiky Words…
Do you sometimes find that the names for things just seem wrong? New research by Sidhu and colleagues may make it clearer why that happens. The researchers report that “Sound symbolism refers to associations...
Healthy Eating – Aided by Design!
The weather finally turning warm each year is a wonderful moment. It’s that time when we can leave our homes without the coats and sweaters that have encased us for months. Our moods near...
Design and Physical Health
Design can support physical health in more than the expected ways. Use of safe materials, ones that don’t off gas toxins, for example, is an obvious design-based route to physical health. Design can make...
Designing your Yoga and Meditation Room
Yoga and meditation are routes that lots of us take to getting and staying mentally and physically healthy. Anyone who’s done either knows that there are some places where yoga or meditation seems to...
High Energy Spaces!
Many of us do all that we can to avoid working out. We often use work as an excuse to avoid exercise—it seems many of us would rather spend time writing another report from...
Eating out!
Restaurant Design Eating out is fun, and restaurants are often create places to spend time. Restaurants are also designed to encourage you to eat, particularly items that have great profit margins. Design significantly influences...
Can a Scent change our Opinion? – “Science News”
If you want to be liked make sure you’re surrounded by lovely sweet smelling roses! That’s what this piece of research seems to reveal! Also the opposite is true, if you are trying to...
Moon Effects – “Science News”
So it seems that science is proving that we are affected by the moon’s cycle! Casiraghi and colleagues used “wrist actimetry to show a clear synchronization of nocturnal sleep timing with the lunar cycle...
Design in Movement – “Science News”
Move more! As a result of this study, why not make sure you put your walking shoes by your main door, so it’s easy to take up those strides and walk for a bit...
Green Buildings are Worth More! – “Science News”
So yes, the news we’ve all been waiting for! Things we knew anyway, that green spaces, green and environmental features are better not just for the environment, but also make us better creative and...
Colours Seen and Temperatures Perceived – “Science News”
The warmer the colour of the light around you, the warmer you feel. This might seem obvious, but studies continue to prove this the case, with significant results. So if it’s cold outside, maybe...
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