How to Live in a City
Once you get yourself to the city, renting or buying a place, you have to spend time living there. But humans developed into their current forms living in nature. Over the aeons our brains...
More on Nature Benefits!
Phillips and colleagues report on experiences during the COVID pandemic: “we examine which types of nature engagement (i.e. with nearby nature, through nature excursions and media-based) are more strongly associated with well-being. . ....
Green Spaces and Medicine
Turunen and colleagues link green and blue spaces and quality-of-life: “associations of the amounts of residential green and blue spaces within 1 km radius around the respondent’s home (based on the Urban Atlas 2012),...
Why you should Garden!
Research on the benefits of gardening continues to accumulate. Scientists at the University of Colourado Boulder report that “the first-ever, randomized, controlled trial of community gardening found that those who started gardening ate more...
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...
The Science of Hygge
At this time of year hygge gets a lot of press, and it turns out that there is a lot of scientific support for it. Penelope Green wrote an article about hygge in the...
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...
Positive Effects of At-Work Nature
Loder and Stoner reviewed studies related to nature (for example, plants, nature views) in workplaces. They report, for example, that “Research has shown that contact with nature can improve task performance, usually through increased...
Turf Houses – Biophilic Design on Steroids!
Goodness, I LOVE these! The BBC brings worldwide attention to the turf homes that have gotten people from Iceland through the winter for many generations. Their use of materials, placement in situ, and really...
Re-nesting – The Long Read
Even if as you read this it isn’t officially autumn yet, you know that summer is past and we are beginning to settle into another winter slog toward Spring and a return to indoor-outdoor...
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 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...
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...
Different places different thoughts
Schertz and teammates report that they “measure[d] differences in thought content and affect throughout a one-hour environmental exploration of a nature conservatory and a large indoor mall. . . . while visiting the conservatory,...
Building in familiarity
Humans usually like to be in places that seem familiar to them—but familiar does not mean exactly the same as spaces previously encountered, just consistent with those other places in important ways, areas where...
Designing for Bonding
Design can influence the bonds we form with other people, just as it can affect how attached we feel to a space. We’ll form more positive and lasting attachments to other people in certain...
The Most Common and Important Errors Design Professionals Seem to Make
None of us are perfect, even people who design for a living. Unfortunately, design professionals regularly do the following things, which are oh so very un-good for the people using what they’ve designed: Signalling...
Garden Rooms
Margaret Roach reports on “garden rooms” (“The Art of Making Garden Rooms,” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/10/realestate/the-art-of-making-garden-rooms.html) in The New York Times. She focuses on the development of the Sakonnet Garden, “a private landscape in coastal Rhode Island”...
Ah the Trees of Paris…
Trees matter, a lot. Looking at them helps us revitalise our tired brains and they help keep temperatures, and stress levels in check just for starters. Writing about trees in Paris, Vivian Song (“Admiring...
Natural environments and positive effects
Koivisto and colleagues share that “Exposure to natural environments has positive psychological effects. These effects have been explained from an evolutionary perspective, emphasizing humans’ innate preference for natural stimuli. . . . The source...
Plants, Biophilic Design and Technology…
Plants and Biophilic Design You’re very apt to see potted plants, real or artificial, in any transit hub because research has shown that when plants are present in public spaces, people are friendlier, which...
Ever wanted to take the Hotel decor home with you?
Hotels are, literally, our homes away from home. We spend time in them when we’re on vacation and having a good time, but also when we’re on business trips and trying like crazy to...
Plants = meditation
Researchers found that looking at plants and guided meditation have similar effects on our mental state. Archary and Thatcher, investigating recovery from mental fatigue (which also degraded mood) found that “distress significantly decreased for...
Gardening is good for you – more evidence!
Researchers determined, via a study published in PLoS ONE, that “many people may indeed reap mental health benefits from working with plants — even if they’ve never gardened before. . . . gardening activities...
Why do we love the smell after it has rained?
Nabhan, Daugherty, and Hartung report that “Desert dwellers know it well: the smell of rain and the feeling of euphoria that comes when a storm washes over the parched earth. That feeling, and the...
What design features encourage active play?
Hunter and colleagues had this goal: “To identify features parents perceived as being relevant for their child’s active play, their own active recreation, and their coactivity. Parents . . . with preschoolers . ....
How to Design a Museum – The Long Read
Museums store some of our species’ greatest work, as well as impressive achievements by Mother Earth—they are places where we go to prepare to think great thoughts, and, occasionally to do a little high-powered...
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