BBC celebrates Value of Building with Nature
Here at The Space Doctors we spend a lot of time singing the praises of views of nature and indoor plants. In a new article on bbc.com, excepts from Carolo Ratti’s introduction to The...
Feeling comfortable at airports – the credit card pod
Many airports across the United States are adding soothing refuges, applying some of the principles of neuroscience-informed biophilic design that we discuss in The Space Doctors’ articles. Christine Chung (2024, “Now Arriving at an...
Nature Sounds and Health
Zhu and teammates found that “Listening to natural sounds, both live and recorded, in either a natural or built environment is considered natural sound exposure (NSE). . . . Fifteen studies . . ....
Choosing a New Place… The LONG READ
Relocating, changing where you live can be a jarring experience. There are all sorts of practical things that you need to figure out when you move – like the fastest route to the market...
Packing and Un-packing…
When you are getting ready to move, what should you pack first, unpack first, not pack at all? When you are getting ready to move the thought of getting everything you own into boxes...
Fix-it-up Timeline… what should you tackle first and why…
Even if you move into a brand-new home, one that has never been lived in by anyone else, you’ll need to make some changes before your new house becomes your new home. The first...
Managing your new garden…
If your new home has a garden, you may be wondering what you should plant. The Space Doctors talked about designing gardens where you can relax and have great times in this article. and...
Sleep Tourism and Cocoons! Environmental Psych in the News
It seems a lot of us are having trouble sleeping in our homes (see this article for neuroscience research-based insights on creating a place where people sleep well). So many of us are sleep...
BBC’s Most Remarkable Homes
Dominic Lutyens has taken a look around our wide, wide world and identified the 8 homes he finds most remarkable, because of their design and earth friendly features (2024, BBC, “Eight of the World’s...
Consequences of Time in Nature
Joye and teammates report that they “tested the ‘nature-as-reward hypothesis’, which suggests that superior cognitive task performance following nature exposure reflects a general performance improvement, driven by the reward value of beautiful things. ....
Teenagers and Physical Spaces
Buttazzoni and Minaker studied teenager (age 9 to 17) and identified “several significant associations. Notably, spaces high in complexity (visual richness), imageability (distinctiveness), and enclosure (room-like quality) tended to support positive affect [mood]. Additionally,...
Outdoor Views
As Spring moves forward across the Northern Hemisphere, you may be thinking of what to do with the landscapes surrounding your home. Neuroscience research has a lot of useful information related to this topic....
Harvesting useful Outdoor Scents
While you are planning your outdoor spaces, think about what they’ll smell like. You can harvest those smells through open windows and smell them directly when you are outdoors. Neuroscience indicates that the following...
Garden Design – Creating the Right Path
When you are creating paths outside through gardens, etc., or inside by arranging the furniture in your living room, you can choose options that are straighter or more curved. Should you go with something...
Battling Burnout with Design
Spring can often seem to be the season for burnout, the winter has been long, and just before the plants really spring back to life, our existences can seem bleak—and we all work too...
What you’re missing (maybe?!)
Dominic Lutyens in an article for bbc.com (“Inside the Homes That ‘Whisper Rather Than Scream Luxury,’” 2024, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240208-inside-the-homes-that-whisper-rather-than-scream-luxury ) writes about the rise of quietly luxurious spaces. As he reports, “In his foreword to...
What should your furniture be made of? – The Long Read
After our houses and our cars, our furniture may be our biggest investment. Sofas, chairs, tables . . . none of them come cheap and modern life seems to require multiple pieces for each...
Specifically, what should your furniture, literally, feel like?
We tend not to think too much about what a design option feels like when we’re pondering choices available to us—but what we feel with our skin has a powerful effect on how we...
Hygge forever – and that includes if you’re Scottish, Norwegian, Dutch or anything inbetween. The joy of ‘Cosycore’.
Holly Williams, in a recent post on the BBC (2024, “The Joy of ‘Cosycore’ and Hunkering Down,” https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240105-the-joy-of-cosycore-and-hunkering-down) reiterates just how wonderful a cozy, hygge inspired space can be at this time of year. ...
Colouring your best mood
Many of us are not in the best of all moods as we slog our way through the beginning of any year – whether we live in the Northern Hemisphere and it’s just too...
Soundscaping for Better Moods
Your ears need a break! Every day they seem to be bombarded by the sounds of machines and other people that seem like they will drive you mad. But you can take steps to...
Designing for Creativity
As the new year dawns, many of us decide to spend time at creative endeavours, and design can help with that! The findings that follow are place-independent; they hold, and can be applied, whether...
Travel Time – by air
This a time of year when many of us are travelling, but spending time in planes, trains, and automobiles can be quite a challenge psychologically—and of these modes of transport, being airborne can be...
What are your most dominant senses?
We tend to focus on what a space we’re developing looks like and that can be a big mistake. For most of us, happily we have multiple sensory systems operating simultaneously and we’re pulling...
Biophilic Design and the brain
Latini and associates report that “a new design approach for preliminary assessment of BD [biophilic design] intervention in VR is presented [in their paper]. . . . . [it compares] three office layouts (Indoor...
Mentally Refreshing Experiences
Johansson and colleagues asked Swedish adults from urban and rural areas to “read scenarios concerning encounters with each of these four animals during recreational visits to a nearby natural setting. The scenarios varied in...
Childhood Anxiety and Greenspace Access
De la Osa and team collected data from children 3 – 11 years old: “Exposure to greenspace has been associated with mental health benefits in children; however, the available evidence for such an association...
Nature Soundscapes – additional evidence
A team of researchers from the University of Exeter “analysed data . . . collected as part of the BBC’s . . . Forest 404. . . .Participants listened to a range of environments...
Feeling with your Fingertips – the Long Read
Humans have lots of skin, with lots of nerves embedded in it. All those nerves are churning away, second after second, sending millions of impulses to your brain – giving you all sorts of...
Viewing Textures
Textures on surfaces are often seen, so they influence how people think and behave, even if no one ever reaches out to touch them: We prefer glossy surfaces to ones that are matte so...
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