Plants Prevail
As they do most Springs when plants revive outside, plants inside are a hot topic. In “Eight Ways Indoor Plants Can Improve Your Home” (2023, https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20230324-eight-ways-indoor-plants-can-improve-your-home) Dominic Lutyens shares that worldwide “a trend for...
Birdsong and Wellbeing
Hammoud and colleagues report that they “used the Urban Mind smartphone application to examine the impact of seeing or hearing birds on self-reported mental wellbeing in real-life contexts. . . . Everyday encounters with...
Benefits of Being in a City
Movies and television shows and books and magazine articles (every sort of media, it seems) makes city living seem oh so exciting and in many ways quite irresistible. Country living is presented as fine,...
Does living in a green space help us live longer?
Brochu and collaborators link how green an area is and the death rates of residents. They “conducted a nationwide [in the United States] quantitative health impact assessment to estimate the predicted reduction in mortality...
Colours and Biophilic Design
We have special relationships with some colours. Around the world, wherever you ask, people are more likely to tell you that the colour blue is their favourite colour than any other shade. Coincidentally, or...
In conclusion – Biophilic Design in situ
Not surprisingly, research has shown that it’s best for our brains and our bodies if we layer multiple biophilic experiences together, so we’re hearing nature and seeing natural materials, and feeling the tickle of...
How to Design your Garden
There’s all sorts of science that can be applied to create a great garden—from studies of what sorts of fertilizer are best for dahlias when to how many hours of daylight petunias actually need...
Looking at the Desert
Yin, Bratman, Browning, Spengler, and Olvera-Alvarez evaluated how seeing the desert scenes through a window affects stress levels. The Yin-lead team reports that they studied “the effect of a virtual reality (VR) exposure to...
Dangers of High Temperature Walks
Asano and colleagues report that “In the experiments [conducted], a total of 96 participants took a mathematical addition test in an air-conditioned room before and after walking in an actual outdoor environment. Results of...
Pollution actually stops us from making green choices…
Ming, Deng, and Wu found that “People are less willing to engage in PEB [pro-environmental behaviours] (e.g., purchasing pro-environmental products, recycling, sustainable travel, donation to environmental organizations) when air pollution is severe. . ....
If You’re in New York City . . .
A current exhibit at the Cooper Hewitt Design Museum focuses on designing to support healing (https://www.cooperhewitt.org/channel/design-and-healing/). The exhibit is described on its website: “This exhibition, curated by MASS Design Group and Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian...
Stress in the City
How to design a city? Mazumder reports that during his dissertation research he found that “participants were brought into an urban environment, in the real world, but also via virtual reality, through the use...
Getting your Home ready for the Fall
Autumn can be the most depressing season. Sure, the leaves all turn pretty colours and the nip in the air means it’s OK to have a nip or two of hot spiced punch (with...
Live in a Green Area, if you can
Atiken found that “People who live in green neighbourhoods are less likely to develop cardiovascular disease. . . . The researchers analysed the odds of developing any new cardiovascular disease, and the number of...
In the Car
You have some ability to customize the interior of your car to help you deal with situations you encounter as you drive. If you want to relax, the traffic has gotten your blood pressure...
Getting out in Nature helps Boost Brain Power – It’s Official!
If you want to improve your little grey cells and also make yourself happy, get yourself out into nature. Write yourself a “green prescription” and take a walk outside, in a park, forest or...
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...
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...
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...
Value of Time in Nature – “Science News”
New research shows that the more time we spend in nature the more generous we are, it creates a sense of transcendence. Castelo lead a team that confirmed previous findings and determined via lab...
Scents Meet Virtual Reality for Wellbeing – “Science News”
Virtual Reality has taken a turn for the better by incorporating smell! There is a new report which uses views and smells to augment the virtual reality to create calm spaces in nature for...
Living Your Best Life Minute – Shopping Tips
In this section, we’re going to initiate a new feature – how to use environmental psych in specific situations that you’re likely to encounter outside your home and office, as you live your life....
Why ADHD Children Need Green Space – “Science News”
Research by Thygesen and colleagues indicates that spending a little extra to provide greater access to green spaces for children may be money well spent. The Thygesen-lead team reports that when they reviewed data...
Leaving on a Jet Plane
As we start to be inoculated, worldwide, it does start to seem likely that someday soon we may again find ourselves on airplanes, actually travelling, maybe even for fun. Remember vacation? Airplane Design from...
Outsiding & Mingling
The weather is finally starting to recover from its winter slump. Leaves are beginning to unfurl on tree branches and flowers are pushing through the soil to soak up some of the increasingly warm...
Happy Memories
Don’t ignore your own positive prior garden or yard experiences. If your childhood garden featured brightly coloured furniture you loved, use the same style again in your current garden if you can, regardless of...
Water Features
Now, for the water element. If a river or stream or pond or lake or ocean borders your property, great. Make sure people in your yard or garden have an unobstructed view of it. ...
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