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Biophilia in the brain?
There’s broad consensus evidence that ‘biophilic’ design (evoking natural environments) helps us to heal – Biophilic Design and Its Effectiveness in Creating Emotional Well-Being, Green Satisfaction, and Workplace Attachment Among Healthcare Professionals: The Hospice Context.
We may even be willing to pay more for spaces with plants and green walls – The Restorative and Contingent Value of Biophilic Indoor Environments in Healthcare Settings.
But is that preference for natural scenes ‘all in the mind’?
Arnold Wilkins’ recent research takes a mechanistic approach to visual comfort, pointing to a link between scenes that trigger higher haemodynamic response, increased energy demand, visual discomfort and lower processing efficiency – Visual discomfort, neural inefficiency and the cortical haemodynamic response, A mechanistic account of visual discomfort.
He suggests that designers focus on the four essential characteristics of natural scenes that will leave your brain the bandwidth it needs to focus on the job in hand.
But everyone is different.
The only reliable measure is how people feel in the spaces you create.
The only way to do that is to ask before you start.
This international review points to three broad strategies – participatory, user-centred and co-design – Establishment of an end-user engaged building design framework.
When it comes to lighting and spatial design, VR is under-used by lighting professionals, but could really help – Virtual reality in lighting design: Insights from academia and an international survey among professionals.
But up to 80% of buildings fail to deliver the performance promised on paper in practice, wasting energy and goodwill in the process – Magnitude, Causes, and Solutions of the Performance Gap of Buildings: A Review. A post-occupancy evaluation can add up to 0.25% of the total build cost, but will pay dividends in operational optimisation and user satisfaction, with up to 70% improvement in energy use from M&V – Post Occupancy Evaluation: an essential tool for the built environment, Concepts of performance in post-occupancy evaluation post-probe: a literature review.
One for the road.
The TUM series has wrapped up for the year but their YouTube channel is packed with brilliant content. It’s my go-to for long journeys – Current Topics in Sleep & Circadian Health (Spring/Summer 2024).
In this episode – Siobhan Rockcastle: Occupant-centric light exposure in buildings, Siobhan Rockcastle demonstrates the value of occupant-centric lighting design, including a fascinating study where she compares the daily exposure of a senior manager, an intern and an IT ‘cave-dweller’, demonstrating the need for radically different approaches to lighting design for their spaces to meet environmental and circadian targets.
Wrapping up National Junk Food Week
I work from home, have a hopelessly sweet tooth – and no self-control when I’m anxious, so the only way I stay off junk food is to keep it out of the house.
Ultra-processed food is bad for your eyes – Evaluation of dietary patterns and their impact on eye health among Saudi adults—A multi-regional cross-sectional analysis in Makkah, Riyadh, and Qassim.
It also gets in the way of a good night’s sleep, with emerging evidence of a link between energy-dense high-reward food and dopamine signalling in the part of the brain that regulates your body clock – Dopamine Signaling in the Suprachiasmatic Nucleus Enables Weight Gain Associated with Hedonic Feeding.
Sugary foods are bad for your teeth, too. That gets worse with age, compounded by disruption to the body clock, linked to inflammation and reduced saliva production – Understanding dental caries as a non-communicable and behavioral disease: Management implications, Improving oral health for adults in care homes. – Chrono Dentistry and the association between shift work and oral health in a representative sample population: An Internet survey.
But for many older adults who struggle to eat enough at mealtimes, snacking on high-calorie junk food may seem like the obvious solution. And yet, more frequent small meals (rather than lots of snacks) may be key to getting the nutrition they need without reaching for the cookie jar – Snacking patterns throughout the life span: potential implications on health.
Could lighting help?
Ps/ I came across this piece of kit designed to reduce plaque, one of the leading causes of cavities and gum disease. You point a device that emits violet-blue light at 405 nanometers at your teeth and take a photo on your phone. The app shows you the plaque build-up in glorious technicolour so you can go back and brush them properly – Light-Induced Fluorescence-Based Device and Hybrid Mobile App for Oral Hygiene Management at Home: Development and Usability Study.
Recovering from a run
Chuffed to have made it round the course in one piece last week. But my knees are still complaining. What’s that got to do with light?
Photobiomodulation (or shining red and infra-red light on muscles before and after training may reduce soreness and muscle damage and oxygen levels (a sign of aerobic stress). But, although scientists are getting clearer about the mechanisms (the link between these wavelengths and mitochondrial function) the results are far from black and white – The Evolution of Red and Infrared Light Therapy in Modern Times.
That may be because the jury is still out on which wavelengths matter most, how much you need (and when).
So for now, I’m going to park my proud bones on a chair in the shade outside and let sunlight do the job.