Golden ratio, Florence Nightingale, nature & art

BY SPENDING 20 MINUTER IN NATURE - OR SOMEWHERE YOU FEEL CONNECTED TO EARTH - YOU WILL LOWER YOUR STRESS LEVELS SUBSTANTIALLY. 

We spend most of our lives in architectural environments and if these are shaped and designed correctly, we get the opportunity to live both more healthy and more sustainable.

• Through art exposure, in combination with medical studies,  your diagnostic and creative ability increases with up towards 20%.

• Beauty and aesthetics can activate striatum, which together with the signal substance dopamine, forming the mesolimbic pathway a.k.a. the brain's reward system. 

• A study made by NASA concerning whether plants indoors have the ability to improve the air and reduce dangerous particles and toxics, resulted in distinct reductions between 10-70% already within 24 hours. The variation of percentage depends on which type of plant involved.

• While offices with open landscapes may have a positive dimension in unobstructed view, it actually deteriorate our attention span because of both digital and human disruptive elements which makes us less productive. 

• Environments with poor sound conditions may even form a health risk. Studies show that productivity may decrease with up towards 66% in an environment with a lot of noise. In addition the risk for heart attacks increases. Good acoustics is therefore also an important part of good design.

• The brain is drawn to satisfactory proportions. Essentially, all living - plants, flowers, animals included - has a symmetric base. 

• Based on well thought trough design, we can create environments that stimulates our brain and our sensory system which will reduce stress and inflammations. 

• Florence Nightingales compiled notes from 1859, Notes on Hospitals, where her observations as a field nurse during the years prior, becomes the book with the most influence on both health care itself as well as hospital architecture even into the modern age! Modern science confirms that hospital and health care environments that reminds us of home makes us feel comfortable such as natural light, appealing colors, art and plants can have an abundance of helpful effects - not just for the patients but also for relatives and staff. 

• Most people find a vivid atmosphere in the urban environment as both desirable and safe. Through using architecture and design to focus directly on peoples interaction with each other, we are able to create a better space for community. This by creating open spaces where we are able to meet and socialise naturally. 

• The African savanna, where we as human species has existed the longest, characterises to this day what we experience to be beautiful and safe. 

• The color green boosts our creative ability. A color often associated with nature, as scientists believe can be linked to the fact that we on a psychological level associates greenery with growth, a concept that is linked to innovative thinking.

  
  

Access to nature nearby home improves our mental health. Nature acts thus as a mental health insurance for our future. 
/Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

• The Golden Ratio: In the book De Divina Proportione, Luca Pacioli describes the concept of the golden ratio that believes to originate from antique Greece and Vetruvius symmetrical ideas. A book that describes the mathematical principals behind our human opinion of harmony and balance that has become an important reference work within architecture and design. 

• Apple's new headquarter in Santa Clara Valley, California - Apple Park - is an exquisite example on how it is possible to combine architecture and design with the latest knowledge about creativity.  Green environments and contact with nature can improve both cognition and creative thinking. 

• Thinking outside the box: A factor that really promotes creativity is a change of scenery. It is consequently a good idea to leave the box to be able to think innovative. By the time we take us into uncharted territory, new neural pathways are created in our brain. Fresh experiences and thoughts allows our anatomical barin structure to evolve and take shape. 

• Because of the importance of new experiences and sceneries, it is important that there is a variety of exciting, diverse areas of the sights where we are spending most of our time awake, such as our workplaces, to motivate us to think innovative and to break deeply-rooted patterns. Simple examples could be taking a new route to work, taking strolls in nature, look at art or experience feelings of admiration. 

• What is the vibe of the room? Do we want to resort to flight or battle due to its design and planning or do we feel safe and motivated to be be thinking creatively and be productive?  The architecture and design of spaces, furniture and its placement, elements of nature, color schemes and lighting is essential for our wellbeing and correctly furbished may reduce stress considerably. 

• Creating art, independent the level of talent, is a powerful tool in processing traumas and a helpful element in decreasing stress.