Enriched environments for brain health that foster creativity, promote positivity, & reduce stress.
Abstract
Science-Informed Design proposes that to provide solutions that best improve the outcomes of any design project, we must draw from a continuously evolving pool of scientific knowledge. A science-informed approach to design - focused on the cognitive sciences - has the potential to shift the way we evaluate spaces away from traditional efficiency metrics focused on form and mechanical performance, to effectiveness metrics focused on experience quantified as cognitive and emotional effects.
In this document we investigate what capacity design holds to positively affect brain structures via improved neurogenesis; and environmentally supported neuroplasticity and propose design mediated solutions for a number of typologies which could potentially reduce stress, boost creativity and positive feelings, hence prevent aging-related cognitive decline.
This effort is intended to inspire designers to create enriched environments which will prevent age-related cognitive decline, foster positive stereotypes around aging, and strengthen inter-generational communities that promote healthy aging as a goal across all age groups. Neurogenesis and environmentally mediated neuroplasticity remain the main candidates for a biological foundation explaining how built environments could support healthy physiological aging. Animal models demonstrate that so-called ‘enriched environments’ are capable of stimulating positive behavioral changes, i.e. animal’s curiosity and exploration linked to creativity in humans and are beneficial in a number of psychiatric and neurodegenerative disorders.
The body of research suggests that the process of age-related cognitive decline is linked with a decrease in dopamine receptors, next to slower neurogenesis in various brain regions. Hence, the importance of creating stimulating enriched environments which can positively affect higher order functions, i.e. creativity and this same support healthy aging preventing cognitive decline. Furthermore, according to lifespan theory of human development1 two components, ‘neurobiological mechanics’ and ‘socio cultural pragmatics’, interact in a reciprocal fashion across the lifespan. This theory implies also that there is no ‘end state’ an individual aims for and that growth and change are possible at all stages of life.
Architectural design plays an important role in fostering social and environmental input which is required to maintain cognitive stability throughout a lifetime.