Nature is Good for our HEALTH – it could save £108.7million!
Grellier and teammates report that “Physical activity (PA) reduces the risk of several non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Natural environments support recreational PA. . . . Population-representative data from the Monitor of Engagement with the Natural...
Kids, Trees and ADHD
Buczylowska and team share that they “examined the association between lifelong exposure to greenspace and ADHD diagnosis and potential underlying mechanisms (i.e., perceived greenspace, PA [ physical activity], neighbourhood social cohesion, and neighbourhood safety)...
Finding your way and playing video games
Yavuz and colleagues link playing video games and successfully navigating from one place and another. They “investigated the effect of video game experience and reliance on GPS on navigation ability using the mobile app...
Can Nature Heal Inflammation?
Ong, Cintron, and Fuligni link pleasant time spent in nature to lower inflammation levels: “Leveraging survey and biomarker data from 1,244 adults (mean age = 54.50 years, range = 34–84 years) from the Midlife...
Our perception of “Real” differs from person to person…
Pang’s work confirms how complex our relationship is with our world. As Pang reports “We experience only our brain’s internal representation of the outside world, which is limiting in two main ways. First, we...
Designing for Beyond-Now Thinking – THE LONG READ
Here at The Space Doctors we generally keep what we talk about in the here and now, but we do acknowledge the importance of all of our spiritual lives and how much practices like...
Designing for Sleep
We all need to sleep the amount that’s best for us and when we don’t spend as much time in Dreamland as our body requires all of our mental processes are compromised—we aren’t very...
We need Privacy….
Any human older than a toddler needs to be able to have privacy when they choose—privacy is not an option for our mental wellbeing. When we have privacy, we have control over who can...
Airports – Spaces the NEED Science
The airports on our planet need environmental psychology. A lot. They’re packed with people who are stressed, for any number of reasons—some are concerned about making connections, for example, and others are nervous about...
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...
What is the value of Greenspace to children’s development?
Using data collected from over 4 US states, Towe-Goodman and many colleagues link between living near green spaces (for instance, forests, parks, residential yards) and mental health. They report that “greater residential green space...
Speed at perceiving visual signals
In terms of speed of response to what we see, some of us have a clear advantage—which may explain why you’ve never excelled at sports. Haarlem and teammates determined that “some people have an...
Visual density and choices made by people who are suffering ill health
Yi and colleagues found “that consumers under disease threat are less willing to buy products presented in a dense display. This is because disease threat activates a high-density avoidance mindset, which is carried over...
At home and onsite creativity
Rucker and associates “conducted an experimental study with a German company whose employees usually work in an activity-based workspace consisting of open, closed and informal spaces that can be used by employees depending on...
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...
Building in Privacy
If you were at all happy in your old home you had privacy when you wanted it. To be happy in your new home your need to make sure that you do. Privacy is...
Language and Design Communication
Have you ever had the experience that you just seem to be unable to communicate with someone about design (or some other topic for that matter)? Your inability to communicate may be because they...
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...
Future more Accessible Spaces
As Jordan Valinsky and Eva Rothenberg report in “Here’s What the Starbucks of the Future Looks Like” (2024, CNN,https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/17/food/starbucks-accessible-store-design/index.html ) Starbucks is making big changes, ones that should make their sites more pleasantly accessible...
Add Variety to be More Creative
Nagayama found that having multiple worksites can boost our creativity. Via a survey they probed “the relationship between MLW [multiple-locational work] . . . and worker outcomes, such as engagement, creativity, and well-being. ....
Collaboration – in person vs online
Van der Wouden and Youn (as reported by Ayshford) studied “17 million scientific publications over the past 45 years find[ing] that researchers who collaborated locally were much more likely to gain new knowledge from...
Sitting, Standing and Health
Nguyen and colleagues report that their “research evaluated the cost-effectiveness of three hypothetical SB interventions: behavioural (BI), environmental (EI) and multi-component intervention (MI). . . . The effectiveness of the modelled interventions in reducing...
Your Home’s “Face”
The façade of your home is the face that it presents to the world. Just like our own faces have a big effect on the instantaneous opinions formed of us as people, the front...
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...
Taking classes online
Harris and Whiting found that “Participants in online classrooms struggle to make sense of emotional interactions. This is due to the separation of physical place between persons and the inability to see the reaction...
Attributes of Homes we’re Willing to Pay for
Lou, Wang, Yuan, and Lu used data from Hong Kong to measure assessed WTP (willingness to pay) for various design features in homes: “We first simulate the metrics of five housing attributes under different...
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