Recent research has demonstrated the profound impact that engaging with art, nature, and thoughtfully designed spaces can have on neurological health and emotional wellbeing. Here’s our reading list for those interested in exploring the intersection of neuroscience, design, and human experience.

 

The Restorative Cities: Urban Design for Mental Health and Wellbeing – by Jenny Roe & Layla McCay

Restorative Cities explores how urban design can actively promote mental health and wellbeing through evidence-based strategies like sensory architecture, green spaces, and community-focused planning. Written in response to growing urban mental health challenges highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic, this book provides practical frameworks for designers, planners, and health practitioners to create more psychologically supportive urban environments.

 

Your Brain on Art – by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross

In Your Brain on Art  a broad array of research shows how engaging with arts – from painting to music to architecture – can reduce stress hormones, extend lifespan, and improve cognitive function. Through interviews with artists and scientists, Magsamen and Ross demonstrate how the emerging field of neuroaesthetics foregrounds art’s vital role in personal health, community wellbeing, and therapeutic practice.

 

2The Archeology of Mind: Neuroevolutionary Origins of Human Emotions – by Jaak Panksepp & Lucy Biven

This is a bit of a dense one, but worth the slog. In this work neuroscientist Jaak Panksepp introduces seven fundamental emotional systems shared across mammalian brains – seeking, fear, rage, lust, care, grief, and play. Through mapping these neural networks, Panksepp provides groundbreaking insights into the biological origins of our emotions and a new framework for understanding mental health.  This served as the foundation for our emotional design framework.

 

The Well-Gardened Mind – by Sue Stuart Smith

In The Well-Gardened Mind, psychiatrist Sue Stuart-Smith explores the profound mental health benefits of gardening, drawing from neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and her own experiences as both clinician and gardener. She demonstrates how nurturing plants can help heal trauma, reduce anxiety, and restore a sense of purpose, providing compelling evidence for the therapeutic power of connecting with nature.

 

Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder -by Richard Louv

In this influential work, Louv explores the concept of “nature-deficit disorder,” linking diminished exposure to nature with rising rates of childhood obesity, attention disorders, and depression. Drawing from extensive research, Louv demonstrates how direct interaction with the natural world is crucial for both physical and emotional development, while offering practical solutions for reconnecting children with nature.