What is NeuroAesthetics?
Neuroaesthetics- The study of brain waves experiencing the aesthetic environment.
This is an exciting approach to interior design that goes beyond the visual, exploring how beauty, nature, and thoughtful design impact our brains and bodies. Now we can prove where art meets biology, showing how our creative choices can lead to tangible health benefits.
Thanks to advancements in brain scanning technology in the 1990s, researchers began to study humans real-time reactions to beauty. This is when neuroaesthetics started to document the physiological effects we experience when encountering something aesthetically pleasing.
Have you ever been in a space that made you feel better? Scientists can now monitor brain activity, track hormone changes, measure heart health, and observe stress reduction in well-designed environments.
We Spend 90% of Our Time Indoors
The Medical Community Stands With Us
While we’re not doctors, with the new advancements in scientific research, home design is being viewed as an alternative health resource. In fact, Dr. Claudia Miller, head of environmental medicine at the University of Texas, made a statement that should transform how every designer views their work:
“Architects and designers have a greater ability to improve public health than medical professionals.”
That’s right. Doctors—the people we trust with our health—say trained interior designers have a greater ability to improve health than they do. This isn’t hyperbole or marketing language. It’s based on decades of research showing that environmental factors have profound, creating lasting impacts on health.
Design directly impacts the physical and emotional health of everyone.
Why is this important to me?
People physically react to their environments, either positively , feeling invigorated and safe or in a negative way, unable to relax, over stimulated or sterile leaving them cold and uncomfortable. With the application of natural materials, layered lighting, colors that add intrigue and wonderful artwork, we physically feel different in an intentional designed space. Biophilia is just one aspect of Neuroaesthetics and is more than using plants inside. Great design lowers blood pressure, releases dopamine, encourages focus and in retail and restaurants encourages clientele to stay longer thus spend more money. For me, growing up in East Tennessee surrounded by mountains and ample green space I know the importance of connecting our bodies with nature. I've had my fair share of being in stale, cluttered, noisy, and energetically draining environments. Those spaces cannot elicit growth or encourage our much needed happiness. Interior Designers trained in the principles of Neuroaesthetics have the potential to change how families, friends and our communities interpret the world through thoughtful healing designs.
I have an opportunity to heal through interior design.