I gather knowledge about the interdisciplinary connections between architecture and well-being.

I put together knowledge from the broad field of environmental psychology into a systematic piece, to be able to use it in practice as an architect. See: Neuroarchitecture theory, neuroarchitecture flusters of knowledge.

I gather arguments for building healthy buildings and for building with WELL certification. See: Healthy: business, buildings.

Feel welcome to explore my page, check out different theories and workshop tool I created and feel free to contact me with questions.

For me, creating architecture without knowing how it influences people is like being a therapist who focuses on pronunciation instead of focusing on helping people. Like cooking without knowing the nutritional value of the ingredients.

We know today how buildings influence our health: air, water, materials, light, presence of plants, art, using different room configurations, or nudging to different behaviours.

We also know how to reach well-being when it comes to our minds: just read any book or listen to Martin Seligman, Barbara Fredrickson or Laurie Santos. We even know how hormones and neurotransmitters are influenced by spaces. Combining all these ingredients together in an interdisciplinary approach is what I find to be a key to creating architecture to support wellbeing.

According to Juhani Pallasmaa - one of the foremost names in conscious and evidence-based design, architecture is a verb. Which verb should it be and how to make it come true?

Your productivity, wellbeing or sense of serenity depend on many factors.

For example, on the unconscious processes in your brain which stem in the experience we human beings went through from approximately a million years ago, which turn on the “rest” or “fight, flight, freeze or fawn” mode and lower our stress levels or motivate us to action.

They also depend on your personality, your method of spatial cognition and your private past experience.

They also depend on right timing and context of the spatial cues.

Both our brains (an electrochemical reaction) and our minds (constructing stories) react to spatial cues.

Different types of spatial stimuli can result in different values, depending on our personal or cultural background as well as on the moment. Our brains are different and context-dependent. How a sensory impulse connects with a bodily reaction is not always the same or obvious.

I believe that if we want to reach well-being by a built environment we need to start treating the building as a part of a multidisciplinary approach - neuroarchitecture, environmental psychology and experiential techniques together.

This is why I think we can coach people to create their spaces, use mindfulness to create buildings, look at the broad models of well-being, understand people, their happiness, fulfilment and motivation. We can look at body, mind, cognitions and emotions and, last but not least, at all the research about how buildings make us feel, think and behave.

When you, instead of focusing only on aesthetics focus on the effect you want your space to make on you, you can achieve a higher and goal-oriented “nutritional value” of the space.