The Hygge “Wood Cabin” feeling
Whether you’ll be spending the end-of-the-year holidays in a cozy log cabin nestled into a snowy forest or in your suburban family room you’re probably interested in making sure your space is welcoming and...
Circadian lighting benefits
Researchers recently reported that “The use of circadian-informed lighting, where artificial lighting is synchronised to the natural biological rhythms or a person’s ‘body-clock’, significantly improves quality of sleep and work performance for night shift...
Community Gardening
Gray, Tracey, and Pigott report findings consistent with those of previous researchers: “Community gardening is a successful social and nature prescription intervention. Community gardening improves health, wellbeing and community connectedness. Community gardening reduces vulnerability...
Humanness and Contact with Nature
Cheng, Wang, Shi, and Teng report “that perceiving humanness in others . . . significantly impacts a range of crucial outcomes. These outcomes include preserving the well-being of [those] perceived . . . fostering...
Sparkles! The Long Read
Humans relish sparkly things, ones that shine. Whether as little bits of glitter or wall sized mirrors, things that reflect light are things humans like. (Although I do have to complain about glitter in...
Polished Wood
Wooden surfaces, on walls, furniture, floors, etc., are often highly polished and shiny—so their use has all the neuroscience implications noted in the first article in this month’s articles. All on its own, however,...
Why bother to Awe…
Awed humans do all sorts of good things. Shiny things can be awe inspiring, along with a slew of other designed elements. We are awed not only by large size (think: the inside of...
How to Refresh
At this time of year, when it is becoming harder and harder to find a nicely warm, sunny day to go outside for a walk, it’s important to keep in mind all of our...
Benefits of Books
When the holidays approach, our places can start to seem visually cluttered—and sometimes this leads to a little voice in our heads suggesting we get rid of books. Unloading a few books that haven’t...
Add dynamic movement
A static space is alien to us and, over time, makes us tense. Have you ever been in a meadow on a lovely spring day when there wasn’t even the tiniest current of moving...
Don’t forget Sensory Richness!
Way, way too often when we’re pulling a space together we think only about what it will look like when we’re done—as if we don’t have ears, nose, and skin that will be in...
Go Green and Leafy
As the days get cooler you probably survey your garden with a heavy heart. You know, like Solomon, you will have to make some difficult decisions soon. Which plants should you save from becoming...
Using Natural Light with care…
We’re used to thinking that natural light is magical, something we can’t get too much of—it elevates our mood (for more on reasons to design to encourage good moods, read this article) and makes...
Go Natural…!
When in doubt, whether you’re standing in front of a display at a home improvement store or a furniture shop, the best option, materials wise, is always the natural one. Wood, stone, wool, and...
Green green green!
“Brat” an album released by Charli XCX has made one particularly intense green the colour of the summer. Callie Holterman (2024, “You Can’t Escape This Color,” The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/26/style/what-is-brat-green.html ) has written...
And just for fun…. Visual Complexity… what do you think?
People reports on what’s new in dorm room design and their article is pretty stunning, and not necessarily in a good way – many neuroscience-based design rules are broken, from creating spaces that are...
Older People and Biophilic Design
Biophilic design is a positive, no matter how old we are. Pandita and Choudhary reviewed previously published articles related to biophilic design in assisted living facilities. They found that “The research advocates the benefits...
Biophilic Spaces for Studying
Terblanche and Khumalo investigated studying on university campuses via a survey of user and report that “The objective of this study is to determine how biophilic designs in study areas affect the productivity of...
Biophilic Design and Creativity
Suresh and colleagues confirm that people are more creative in biophilically designed offices: “Biophilia Index has shown a significant positive correlation and a strong predictive value for creativity of employees. . . . [data...
Forest Bathing
Szitas and colleagues confirm the value of forest bathing via a literature review, they “explored the effects of forest bathing on self-criticism, self-compassion. . . . Results showed that forest bathing is associated with...
New Life into Old Buildings
Worldwide many fewer churches are needed for religious services, so many are being repurposed—and the buildings have some great architectural features, neuroscience-wise. In “As Hundreds of Churches Sit Empty, Some Become Hotels and Restaruants”...
Design and Apparent Production Costs
Min, Liu, and Anderson found that “Brands and retailers often offer different aesthetic versions of the same base product that vary from visually simple to visually complex. . . . Consumers associate simple (vs....
How AI generated pictures of food influence us
Califano and Spence studied responses to AI-created pictures of food; their findings can likely be extended to other sorts of AI-generated images. Califano and Spence determined via online surveys that “participants . . ....
Metaverse nature
Lv focuses on the “recent proliferation of ‘metaverse’ virtual worlds, where tech companies are investing billions to create hyper-realistic digital environments, including simulated natural landscapes. . . . these virtual ecosystems risk perpetuating a...
Colours of Energy Levels
People are people and brains are brains wherever they are, so it’s no surprise that colours influence us in predictable ways no matter where we find ourselves. Colour has 3 dimensions, hue, saturation, and...
Associations of hues
Over time, groups of people come to link specific concepts/ideas to certain colours. Sometimes these colour-idea bonds seem to happen almost by decree, for example, when a political party decides to adopt a colour...
Colours for Home Offices
Whether you’re picking colours for your home office or a space where thousands will work, the same rules apply. Neuroscience has made it clear that it’s important for people doing knowledge work to coordinate...
Colours for mingling!
Making mingling with others a positive experience requires a lot more than just throwing people into a room together, as anyone who’s ever done just that and watched their party fizzle can confirm. When...
Additional colour effects…
Neuroscientists have also learned that: • Lighter colours on walls make a room seem slightly larger than it actually is and darker ones slightly smaller. The same goes for light colours on ceilings and...
Using Colours Together
In life, we’re almost never in a place with only one surface colour (and if we are, particularly if that colour is white, we’re apt to be so stressed that we’re having a very,...
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