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...
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...
Designing to Boost Brain Performance – “Science News”
This is a tough time to be a human. Humankind needs to creatively resolve a multitude of challenges in the weeks and months and years ahead. That makes this a good time to apply...
Home Office, Home Design Challenge
Creating a home office where people work to their full potential, and have a reasonable level of wellbeing while doing so, is a lot more challenging than heading off to IKEA and bringing home...
Learning Spaces – The Long Read
Our brains have to work hard to learn new things. The forces building the knowledge bases inside our skulls (we’ll talk mainly about learning information and mental skills here, not more physical skills) need...
Helping Our Memory Work Better, Via Design
Design decisions can help our memories work just a little better. In this article, we’ll cover how design can support the memories of those of us with regular old brains, specific issues raised by...
Dealing With a Creative “Block”
For many people their creative pursuits, whether that’s drawing or painting or writing or playing an instrument or something else, are meaningful parts of their lives. For those individuals, when their creativity “stalls,” great...
Red = Risk, unless you’re in China
Can seeing Red negatively influence Stock Market Liquidity? This is an interesting piece of research. We have written before about how the colour red influences our choices. In this month’s round up of Science News,...
Improving by Removing
Sometimes less is more. Have you ever tried to solve a problem by listing everything, maybe pulling in all the issues. In many situations, we seem to solve problems by adding. But in our...
Fixing the Home Office – Before or After You Move!
Satisfaction If you can’t do what you consider a good job at your job in your home office, you’ll be miserable. So what do you need to do? The same self-identity mentioned in the...
Post-COVID Home Design
The single most important message, design-wise, we can draw from our experiences during the pandemic related lockdowns is that we need to make sure our homes, going forward, provide us with options as to...
Add a bit of You to Your Space
Say who you are with some things that mean something to you.. but not too much! In a space where people will have a great time together, which is what mingling is all about,...
7 Ways to Boost Work performance at Home
You can use neuroscience to develop spaces where you work to your full potential and, more probably, achieve the goals you set yourself (including those New Year Resolutions you may have set a while...
Which Colours work best when working from home?
The first question that you probably have about spaces for work is what colour you should paint their walls. Science has answers to those questions. The colours that are best for surfaces, walls and...
Clean Air for Boosting your Mind
Mullen and colleagues confirm how important it is to breathe clean air and their work supports efforts to make sure air inside buildings is filtered. The researchers report that “Fine particulate air pollution is harmful to...
Not the Same Old Oval Office
Most offices, even if they’re used by well-known people are unseen by most of us. Titans of industry and even many public officials spend their “office hours” working in places that only their professional...
Plants a Plus
Adding a green leafy plant to any sort of space in which you find yourself is a good idea. Research has directly linked looking at green leafy plants to: Lower stress levels Mental refreshment...
Soundscapes and Sensitivity
Tarlao, Steffens, and Guastavino’s work verifies that many factors besides the actual noises themselves influence perceptions of acoustic experiences. The researchers report that “Previous soundscape research has shown a complex relationship between soundscapes, public space...
What’s the most important design element in working from home?
Mental and physical work can take multiple forms. Mental work is doing the book keeping for your business or some other “knowledge-“ type work or maybe even thinking creatively to solve some sort of...
What you wear can influence what you eat…
Wang and colleagues link clothing worn and food selections made, it may be possible to apply their findings more generally, but whether this sort of extension is reasonable will need to be directly investigated. ...
How new homes should be designed post-Covid
The Place Alliance surveyed people in the United Kingdom during the COVID-19 pandemic (May, 2020) and after analyzing the data they collected online have reached some conclusions about how homes should be designed in...
How to prevent mental exhaustion and distraction when Working from home?
Whether you’re doing mental or physical work, the space you are in should come complete with lots of natural light. Natural light is good for our mood and that has benefits for how good...
Nature Sounds
Listening to nature sounds is relaxing and refreshing—and you can do it whenever you want, even if you live in the heart of the busiest city because nature soundtracks are readily available online. But...
Want to think Creatively? 9 of the Best Quick Solutions
Research on spaces where people are more likely to think creatively is clear, these spaces share certain attributes. Home offices where people excel at creative thinking: Feature all sorts of different shades of green.Many...
Are you a Messy Bunny?
Visual clutter makes us very, very tense. It degrades both our mood and our mental performance and our ability to learn—it may even contribute to us eating in less healthy ways. If you have...
The Science of Using Scents
Happily, for most of us, most of the time, are noses are doing their job and we can pick up odours in the world around us. Scientific studies consistently link particular smells to particular...
Change your viewpoint!
If your stock portfolio is filed with risky options and you’re nearing retirement, a move to a lower floor may be in order. Jami reports that “Multiple studies show that exposure to the viewpoint...
Boost Professional Performance
When you’re doing work that requires you concentrate, your brain, like a sports car, fires on all cylinders, relaxing colours, options that are not very saturated but relatively bright are best. Focused thinking is...
Biophilic Design Inspiration
What is Biophilic Design and why should we know about it? Biophilic design makes us feel comfortable and relaxed in a way that nothing else does because it recognises and respects the conditions that...
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