Sheltering in place can get harder the longer you do it. Here are seven strategies for creating an oasis at home, no matter how small it is…

“The value of creating a private oasis is mental refreshment,” said Sally Augustin, Ph.D, an environmental psychologist and founder of the design firm Design With Science. “It’s an opportunity for reflection.”

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/13/realestate/how-to-escape-without-leaving-your-home.html?referringSource=articleShare

Lessons in Domestic Diplomacy

Where you position your chair, how you sit on it and where those in your family sit around you can have an impact on family harmony.

https://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/14/fashion/negotiating-peace-at-home.html

Ever thought about renovating your basement? It is often one of those overlooked places, often “a backstage area”. But it could hold the key to freeing up space, giving you the office you always wanted or a much needed creative den.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/05/04/style/what-lies-beneath.html

https://www.shondaland.com/live/body/a33463636/the-impact-of-color-on-our-well-being/

“One thing to remember,” Augustin cautions. “is that color isn’t magic. People are puzzles, and each person is taking it all in through their own sensory apparatus, their own cultural perspective, and their own experience. You can

have someone paint all the walls in their house yellow and immediately think that they will be happy and successful. You can put me in a room that might be the perfect colour for creative thinking and ask me to think creatively about physics, but, since I am not an expert atphysics. Nothing is going to happen….. Saturation and brightness inform our response to colors,” Augustin says. “So if you want to create a space for relaxation, walls, or surfaces that are not very saturated but are relatively bright, lighter colors are ideal. Say you get a bucket of paint in sage green and then imagine dumping a whole bucket of white paint into it. That’s a great color for a space for people to feel more relaxed.”

The evolution of conventional work life won’t come without some cost

https://www.architecturaldigest.com/story/end-of-office-culture

Life isn’t going back to normal. Can we actually make it better?

“Learn new communication tricks. Human beings communicate with one another in many ways: via spoken words, tone of voice, facial expressions, gestures, the distances

we keep from each other, body orientations, eye contact, even scents that are not consciously perceived. But, given the current guidance around social distancing, many of these messaging paths are currently compromised, even when we find ourselves in the same physical space.” says Sally Augustin.

https://www.politico.com/interactives/2020/magazine-friday-cover-redesigning-the-world-coronavirus/

Employers need to create offices that workers will feel safe to come back to. More employers are trying to create an office that workers will actually want to come back to as pandemic-related lockdowns ease across the country.

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-make-offices-more-healthfuland-less-stressful-11591658207?mod=ig_healthreport

Some bosses pushing back against open floor plan

https://www.wsj.com/articles/ceos-want-their-offices-back-1495445400

The team’s round clubhouse at Wrigley Field is designed to be a place where players are encouraged to talk to each other

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-chicago-cubs-circle-of-trust-1495477510 

The problem is visual noise; companies get creative dialing down distractions that pull eyes away from desks, an unforeseen consequence of open-plan workspaces

https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-you-cant-concentrate-at-work-1494342840?emailToken=JRryc/F+aHWeg9c9b8wj1Extf64VTuSAQE+SJ3fMMUXKqGbcve/kzrlwmNytoib2GRcmvIxevzJn

Parents, children, designers and psychologists weigh in on what can become a very contentious family drama.

“Living in a home with moderate visual complexity is optimal and keeps stress levels in check; living in a place with high or low visual complexity is stressful,” says Sally Augustin.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/jamiegold/2019/09/29/minimalism-offers-surprising-wellness-benefits/?sh=3387ca564ff1

http://www.wsj.com/articles/should-parents-let-kids-design-their-own-bedrooms-1484841567 

http://www.forbes.com/sites/eustaciahuen/2016/08/30/inside-new-york-citys-first-luxury-micro-apartment-building-where-units-start-at-265-square-feet/#4300c490398b

There seems to be a positive association between nature and regrowth,” notes Augustin. So if you want your employees to be more productive, consider painting work areas green.” Plus many more tips.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/amymorin/2014/02/04/how-to-use-color-psychology-to-give-your-business-an-edge/?sh=2f820375170a

“Environmental psychology is the study of how the things in the world around you influence how you think and behave. Environmental psychologists look at how surface colours influence your creativity and analytical performance; how ceiling height affects social behaviour; how people respond to a certain texture against their fingertips, or their feet, for example.

We then add an extra layer of analysis to those aspects of the physical form. We consider how national culture and organisational culture influence people’s experiences and expectations in a given space. We consider how different personalities will or should influence design.” Sally Augustin

https://kintopia.kintone.com/

https://kintopia.kintone.com/articles/005559.html

Here’s why yellow might be off-putting and blue could land you the job.

Colourful decor can make your space more beautiful and can even improve your mental state

https://www.playboy.com/read/don-t-let-home-life-get-stuck-in-neutrals

“Nature can have a positive impact on people’s mental well-being during quarantine, by reducing stress levels and cognitively refreshing people… [This can be] regardless of whether people are in nature, looking at it in paintings, photographs or other art, or even hearing it – think peaceful meadow sounds.” Sally Augustin

https://www.euronews.com/living/2020/04/16/i-bought-an-indoor-garden-to-see-if-it-would-make-quarantine-bearable

“Define your sleep zone with the help of a soft area rug, suggests Augustin. It lends a cozy feel to the space, provides a warm landing pad for your feet, and helps buffer noise while you’re asleep. Opt for plush fibers—like soft wool or a wool blend—for maximum comfort.”

http://www.laurabenko.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/RSBedroom-feature.pdf

“We are always scanning the world around us, because this is how our brains developed when we were a young species,” she says. Because of this, designing a space that is minimal, but not bare, is key.

“When there are more things around, clutter on desks or in rooms for example, that scanning is more challenging and the science shows that this leads to stress and tension” Sally Augustin

https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/6-12-april-2020/home-office-coronavirus/

“Good design can make a home more sustaining, a work force more productive and a business enterprise more successful…”

https://www.apa.org/members/content/good-design-environments

“Our brains are still conditioned to be looking around in our environment regularly the way we did as an early species to identify predators,” she explains. According to Augustin, stark and barren spaces make us just as stressed out as a space with a lot going on. To strike the right balance for productivity, you need to find just the right amount of visual complexity.”

https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/desk-makeover-i-redesigned-my-work-space-boost-my-productivity-ncna1113956

You can fine-tune the sensory experiences so that the spaces align with your objectives and a lot of the environmental stressors get eliminated.”

 https://www.nbcnews.com/better/lifestyle/darker-days-are-here-here-s-how-make-your-home-ncna1070941?cid=eml_better_20191104