More Benefits of Feeling Awed
We can be awed by design in a variety of ways, for example, via exquisite workmanship or use of unique or special materials. Prade and Saraglou share that “Given that awe experiences promote collective...
Building connections to Artwork
Carbon reports that “When we attend sculptures in museums, they might fascinate us due to the mastery of the material, the inherent dynamics of body language or due to contrapposto or the sheer size...
Biophilic Facades
Berto, Barbiero, and Salingaros share that “Built environments that integrate representations of the natural world into façades and interiors benefit occupant psycho-physiological well-being and behavior. However, the biophilic quality of buildings does not depend...
Virtual Reality Forest Bathing
Frigione and colleagues report that their “study investigates the effects of natural and indoor virtual environments (VREs) on psychophysiological and cognitive responses. . . . participants were exposed to two VREs (i.e., a forest...
Trees make for Safer Streets
Zhu, Sze, and Newnam report that a “street tree is considered a traffic calming measure.” Findings from the Zhu, Sze, and Newnam study “indicate that road width, bus stop, tram station, on-street parking, and...
Confirming the Benefits of living near Green Spaces and Water
Vegaraju and Amiri found that “Living closer to outdoor spaces and water sources may reduce older people’s risk of having serious psychological distress, which can lead to mild cognitive impairment and dementia. . ....
Does where we live change our values?
Chishima and colleagues report that “person-environment fit between individual values (traditional vs. modern) and environmental characteristics (rural vs. urbanizing communities) promotes place attachment and participation. . . . we qualitatively and quantitatively analyzed one...
Sights and Sounds Interrelated!
Isaacson and team fount that when study participants “asked to choose one of three realistic or abstract paintings, evaluate their perceptual characteristics on five semantic differential rating scales and answer three questions. The participants...
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,...
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...
Your Personality and Your In-City Home
Although there’s always the chance (day or night) to pop out of an urban residence, it’s even more important that that a home in the city aligns with your personality than that one outside...
What you can learn from Urban Design for Wherever you Live
Urban designers have done oodles of studies over the years, and some of the lessons that their work teaches are relevant whether you live in a city or not and their research outcomes align...
Cities and Pets
Pets living in cities lead very different lives than their country cousins. In this era, city dogs are likely to have some access to nearby green areas, but that’s not necessarily the case. City...
Potential Visual Clutter Epidemic
Apparently, wallpaper is making a comeback and it’s becoming popular to put it everywhere, even on the ceiling (Lia Picard; February 2, 2023; The New York Times, “Wallpaper Everywhere All at Once;” https://www.nytimes.com/2023/02/02/style/ceiling-wallpaper.html). Do...
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),...
Get Outdoors after Work!
Klotz and colleagues studied how employees experiencing outdoor nature after spending a day at work indoors affected their lives. The scientists determined that “Our results, based on three studies employing different methodologies (i.e., an...
Does taking photos ruin your memory?
Soares and Storm report that “The photo-taking-impairment effect is observed when photographed information is less likely to be remembered than non-photographed information. Three experiments examined whether this effect persists when multiple photos are taken....
Ceilings to Look up to… the Long Read…
It’s easy to take ceilings for granted. Most of the time for the majority of us they’re a non-event, they’re up there blocking our view of the sky, part of a structure that keeps...
Finishes that Complete Things in just the Right Way
Finishes tend to be an afterthought—we agonize over a colour for a surface, but not over whether that surface should be shiny or matte, for example. This is too bad as surfaces have a...
Work in Movement….
People creating a space rarely remember to add elements that will move gently, peacefully. Gentle movement is an important principle of biophilic design, discussed here. The goal is to add some curtains, a wall...
Transition Areas
Way too often we create the focal areas in our homes and imagine, it seems, that people will experience one space or another but not those in between. Zoning is key for the best...
Do you go to Antique shops?
You’ll be interested in Ross, Bolton, and Meloy’s work. They found that “The market for secondhand items – goods previously owned by others- is rapidly growing. Disordered environments, characterized by disorganized or messy product...
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...
Circadian Lighting for Mental and Physical Health
Circadian lighting keeps our stress levels in check, improving our physical health, and keeping our brains purring along effectively. It complements the light provided by the sun wherever we are, helping us live our...
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...
Why do we love the sea, lakes and rivers?
In “The Surprising Benefits of Blue Spaces” Frankie Adkins and Katherine Latham (https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221108-the-doctors-prescribing-blue-therapy) talk about the benefits of time on the ocean and in blue spaces: “When Homo sapiens first evolved some 300,00 years...
Why we go back to places
Winet and O’Brien report that “In eight experiments with nearly 6,000 total participants, [they]explored whether people tend to prefer novel, exciting experiences, such as trying a new restaurant, or familiar ones, such as returning...
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...
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