Managing Acoustics
Sometimes people create a whole space without considering what the ambient soundscape will be. They may consider where to place speakers for the sound system they will install but not what user ears will...
Free Zones – in Praise of Basements!
Spaces where we can relax as we explore our own minds and work toward goals that are important to us are vital for our mental health. In “In Praise of Unfinished Basements,” Brady Brickner-Wood...
Designing for Mental Health – The Long Read
Every day is not a good day, no matter what colour you paint the walls in your office and regardless of the pattern and texture of your entryway rug. The design of the places...
Feeling Better Physically, Via Design – The Long Read
You may be thinking that the only way your design decisions will influence your physical health is if that oh so pretty throw you buy to make your winter sofa cozy or that incredible...
Lessons Learned During the Pandemic
Lots of environmental psychology research was conducted during the pandemic and investigators largely confirmed findings from previous studies. Data collected during the pandemic, mainly during 2020 and 2021, verified that: Ventilation has a significant...
Seasonal Scenting
When people visit our homes we want it to smell “good”—the amount of air freshener sold during the holidays, particularly of holiday scents like cinnamon-y ones, indicates that we may actually be desperate to...
Planning for Pleasant Conversations
The end of the year is the time for lots of idealized thinking about positive conversations—maybe memories of previous ones around a holiday table, planned ones with family and friends in front of a...
Spiritual/Meditation Vibes
Even those of us who are not particularly religious are likely to have spiritual thoughts in conjunction with our end of year holidays. How can you boost the “spirituality” of your home? Make the...
Resolutions you should make for the year
Looking for New Year’s resolutions to ring in 2023? Yes? Then resolve in the year ahead to: Cut the clutter in your home, as discussed in this article. Add opportunities to mentally refresh, as...
The Science of Opera
Interested in opera and in neuroscience? You’ll be fascinated by this article merging the two: Frank Rose’s “Music, Science and Healing Intersect in an A.I. Opera” (The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2022/10/28/arts/music/artificial-intelligence-opera.html). A taste: “’We’ve...
Why we go back to places
Winet and O’Brien report that “In eight experiments with nearly 6,000 total participants, [they]explored whether people tend to prefer novel, exciting experiences, such as trying a new restaurant, or familiar ones, such as returning...
When and how to face the camera
Research by Fauville and colleagues in the virtual world is probably relevant in real life also: “the impact of three nonverbal cues displayed through video conference screenshots (i.e., gaze direction, distance between the face...
Thinking while Standing
Bhat and associates report that “The present study investigated the effects of attending lectures in sitting and standing postures on executive function of young adults. . . . Attending a lecture in a standing...
Pregnant People in Green Spaces
Sun and colleagues had “pregnant women between 8 and 14 weeks’ gestational age . . . view one of three, 5-min, VR [virtual reality] videos of an urban scene with different green space levels...
Our fluffy friends are good for us too – says Science…!
Also, recently, another study has been published laying out how good for our mental state it is to be around pets (dogs in the case of the newest study)—a research project like this draws...
Workplace Cats and Dogs
Designing workplaces where dogs thrive (just like their owners and where both dogs and owners might potentially do their best work) is a topic that is getting or needs to get more attention in...
For Dogs and Cats
How do you design spaces that will make your moggy and pooch happy? environments (except for the much-needed retreats mentioned earlier), maybe more so than some of their human companions. Try to build in...
Reflecting Surfaces
Humans have very special relationships with shiny, reflective surfaces. Some scientists think that this is because our sensory systems developed to find them particularly pleasant as the surfaces of bodies of clean fresh water...
Managing Sightlines
Most of us, happily, have well-functioning eyes that make it easy for us to look around us, but what are the best sightlines for us through a space? Having a sightline view of at...
Formality and Charitable Giving
Organizing a fundraiser? You’ll be interested in research conducted by Pfeiffer, Sundar, and Cao. Their work indicates links between language used and the effectiveness of charitable appeals and it is possible that their findings...
Water experiences as a child – lifelong implications
Vitale and colleagues report that via “data from an 18-country sample (N = 15,743) the current work extended previous research by examining: a) blue spaces (coasts, rivers, lakes, etc.) in particular; b) associations between adults’ recalled...
Measuring Cognability
A research team based at the University of Michigan is making available, without charge, an easy-to-use tool that can be used to determine how well a particular area supports the cognitive health of aging...
Zonings
Zones, whether they’re created by walls or via darker and lighter (more brightly lit) spaces drive our activities in powerful and useful ways. It is important to acknowledge, right off the bat, that we...
Hygge please
The Scandinavians have been doing it for aeons – they hygge (different languages use different terms but “hygge” is the one that English speakers are most familiar with). Hygge makes a space cosy and...
Picking Colours
As the days grow shorter, your opportunities to paint whatever might need painting in your home fewer. So, the question of the moment becomes: what colours should you select for those walls, ceilings, doors,...
Picking Patterns
Just as the season for painting inside may be ending, so is the one for hanging wallpapers. Science can tell us a lot about which patterns are best on walls and what researchers have...
The Science of Furniture
Scientists have carefully probed how furniture design influences how people think and behave: An article earlier in this issue discusses patterns for upholstery, etc., here. Wood grain is relaxing for us to view and...
Designed Pleasure
Patrick Jordan, in a short but incredibly important book (Designing Pleasurable Products – An Introduction to the New Human Factors, 2000, Taylor and Francis), lays out how design can make our lives better. His...
Artists’ Studios
The design of artists’ studios is currently getting a lot of attention. For example, Clare Dowdy of bbc.com (“Behind the Scenes: 10 Revealing Images of Artists’ Studios,” https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220914-behind-the-scenes-10-artists-studios-through-the-centuries ) probes studios depicted in James...
Way, Way too Hot…
Stress of any sort is bad for our physical and mental health. That’s why The Space Doctors often cover topics such as aligning environments with the task at hand and personality and culture, for...
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