How the buildings you occupy might be affecting your brain

Nest by Max Hu and August Miller, the winner of Perkins&Will’s Phil Freelon Design Competition, reimagines the interior of the San Francisco public library. Courtesy Perkins&Will

Nest by Max Hu and August Miller, the winner of Perkins&Will’s Phil Freelon Design Competition, reimagines the interior of the San Francisco public library. Courtesy Perkins&Will

is a Vice Chancellor’s doctoral scholar at the University of Cambridge and an affiliated researcher at the University College London Spatial Cognition Lab. Her research examines the impact of architecture on neurophysiology, with a specific interest in neuroimmunology.

is a PhD candidate at the University of Cambridge in the UK where she is an Ackman Scholar. Her work focuses on gender equity, and interdisciplinary approaches to understanding the complex sociospatial and psychological impact of the built environment on wellbeing outcomes.

Have you ever experienced a space that made you feel uneasy or stressed? Perhaps it was a noisy and crowded shopping mall, with its neon signs, patterned tilework and boldly painted walls in franchise signature colours. Or the poorly lit work carpark with flickering fluorescent lighting, low ceilings and hard concrete surfaces that made your every footstep echo. Now contrast that experience with a space that made you feel at ease. It might have been that time you were sitting at the table in your friend’s kitchen – the sun coming in through the window, warming your skin and filling the space with light; the smell of fresh coffee brewing; and the first blush of colour in the buds of the pot plants on the windowsill. Or maybe it was sitting in your favourite spot at the local library – the comfy seat in the quiet area with the high ceilings, ample natural light and a view out over the courtyard garden.

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