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,...
Nature Urban Strolls
Sudimac, Sale, and Kuhn share that they “conducted an intervention study to investigate changes in stress-related brain regions as an effect of a one-hour walk in an urban (busy street) vs. natural environment (forest)....
How much are views worth?
Crompton and Nicholls report that “Twenty-seven empirical studies were identified that empirically estimated the impact on property values of views of open space. The review differentiated between street level and high-rise building views. Among...
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...
Don’t forget Fido and Fifi!
Pets or animal companions are important to many of us and we want them to live happy lives. Living a happy life, for a pet, may not mean getting to do whatever is desired—shredding...
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...
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...
Designing for Sleeping zzzzzz
Several issues ago we wrote about how design can make it easier for people to fall asleep and stay asleep (here), and designing for sleeping has been in the news recently. Would you go...
Developers are swapping to Wood
Regularly, the Space Doctors discuss the psychological benefits of being able to see at least some wood grain. A recent article indicates that wood is currently finding its ways into lots of design solutions...
Robert Downey Junior’s home
Here in The Space Doctors’ newsletter we often talk about how seeing curves (in 2-dimensions in patterns in wallpapers and upholstery and 3-dimensions in the gently rolled arms of a sofa or walls of...
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...
Designing for Wellbeing Toolkit
Orcun and Desmet developed a toolkit that can be used to create spaces that support wellbeing, which is available at the web address noted below. As Orcun and Desmet report “The current project adopted...
Using the Right Typeface
Chu, Tok, Zhou, and Chen share that “We propose that the typeface’s simulation of a handwritten note creates a sense of connectedness to the information sender (e.g., organization, brand), which subsequently increases consumers’ willingness...
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...
Art and Real-life
Stone-Ferrier studied paintings depicting 17th-century Dutch neighborhoods and her findings highlight the cultural information that art can convey. A press release related to Stone-Ferrier’s work reports that “The importance of knowing what’s going on...
Sound Effects on Sights
Sounds have such a profound effect on us. Williams and teammates share that “Visual object recognition is not performed in isolation but depends on prior knowledge and context. Here, we found that auditory context...
Babies and Sensory experiences
Ustun and colleagues’ research boosts our understanding of human sensory systems (and confirms that kale is vile). They report that “The diet of pregnant women exposes fetuses to a variety of flavours consisting of...
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...
Designing for Aging Individuals
A team from the University of Stirling has developed a tool that can be used to create environments that support aging individuals and those with dementia; it is available at a weblink in the...
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...
Shape, Sensation Links
Juravle, Olari, and Spence report that “Rounded shapes, which have been shown to enhance sweetness, were compared to the perfectly symmetrical Platonic solids. . . . participants were presented with a rotating three-dimensional geometric...
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 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,...
More on how colours influence how we think…
More on how colours influence how we think: Colours that are not too saturated but relatively light are relaxing for us to view while ones that are more saturated and darker are energizing to...
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...
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