Neuroarchitecture - Wellness by Design
Exploring the intersection of architecture and medicine
dSPACE Studio designs award-winning modern homes that promote wellness, connection, and joy. And help us live longer.
Guest article by Dr. Gregory Brisson, MD, FACP
Written in collaboration with dSPACE Studio
For most of time, we lived outdoors rather than in buildings. Our bodies evolved in constant dialogue with nature—shifting light, moving air, and ever-changing patterns of sound and scent. Today, we spend nearly 90 percent of our lives indoors, disconnected from the natural world and surrounded by static conditions of temperature, light, and humidity. It's a profound shift. We are, in essence, Stone Age creatures living in a modern world, and we are only just beginning to understand how buildings shape our health and wellness.
Neuroarchitecture is an emerging scientific field at the intersection of architecture and medicine. It explores how the built environment influences our bodies and our minds. This discipline draws from neuroaesthetics—the study of how sensory experiences activate the nervous system, influencing blood pressure, mood, cognition, sleep, and immune function.
Most of us recognize this instinctively. Some spaces calm and restore us, while others leave us subtly on edge, even when we are not sure why. This is neuroarchitecture at work—quiet in its presence, yet measurable in its effects. Over time, these sensory signals accumulate, leaving a lasting imprint on how we feel, think, and live.
At dSPACE Studio, these ideas become design practice. dSPACE creates personalized contemporary homes that activate the body’s restorative parasympathetic nervous system, reducing physiologic stress and promoting balance. The goal is profound yet practical: to design artful homes that make your life better and help you live longer.
How Home Design Affects Health and Wellness
When we encounter beauty—be it an iconic work of art or something as simple as sunlight dappling through leaves—our brains register it as pleasure and safety. Our bodies respond unconsciously by lowering stress hormones, slowing the heart rate, easing blood pressure, and elevating mood.
By contrast, spaces that feel artificial, chaotic, or visually overwhelming activate unconscious stress responses in our nervous system that elevate blood pressure, raise stress hormones, and disrupt sleep. Over time, even low-level chronic exposure to these stressors can contribute to heart disease, depression, inflammation, and fatigue.
A well-designed home, therefore, is not just aesthetically pleasing—it’s restorative. It reduces physiologic stress in daily life and supports long-term wellness.
At dSPACE Studio, artful design is grounded in biology and human evolution. In Hollywood Hills Modern, operable window walls, terraces, and water features maintain a dialogue between architecture and landscape, fostering a sense of calm through light, movement, and reflection. At Dunelands, rooms are oriented to capture prevailing breezes and shifting daylight, immersing the senses in nature’s rhythms. Every detail—from material choice to spatial proportion—is thoughtfully designed to harmonize the body’s equilibrium with the natural world.
Architecture as Medicine
One of the earliest studies to prove this connection came from researcher Roger Ulrich, who found that patients recovering from surgery healed faster and required less pain medication when their hospital window faced trees rather than a brick wall. A simple view of nature measurably improved recovery—a powerful demonstration that architecture itself can function as medicine.
The same principle guides wellness design at dSPACE Studio. In Bel Air Vista, bronze fins filter sunlight to align with the body’s circadian rhythm, while operable window walls balance openness with refuge. At Treehouse, spaces are suspended among oak trees, using light, texture, and proportion to create an instinctive sense of safety and connection to nature. In urban settings such as Zinc House, balanced geometry and protected outdoor spaces promote focus and serenity—showing how thoughtful design can transcend the intensity of city life.
Science now recognizes that beauty is not optional—it’s physiologic. Homes we experience as beautiful—those that balance order and complexity, openness and intimacy, light and shadow—engage the same sensory responses that have supported human health and well-being throughout evolution. dSPACE Studio translates these findings into modern luxury homes, shaping spaces that intuitively feel right.
Designing Homes for Health and Wellness
Every design decision—proportion, light, material, acoustics, and flow—is absorbed unconsciously by the body. These cues activate physiologic pathways that influence health, cognition, and mood. In this way, architecture becomes a form of preventive medicine. As former Surgeon General Boris Lushniak observed: “If you are an architect, you are a public health worker.”
At dSPACE Studio, each project begins with an understanding of how clients live, rest, and connect. From there, we design homes that support those natural rhythms. The goal is not only to create spaces that are beautiful, but homes that make you feel better every day.
In a world shaped by stress, digital overload, and sensory fatigue, designing for wellness is not optional—it’s essential. Drawing on the science of neuroarchitecture, dSPACE Studio offers a new model for the modern home: spaces that engage the senses, restore the mind, and nurture the body through the quiet power of design.
FAQ - Neuroarchitecture & Wellness Design
What is neuroarchitecture?
Neuroarchitecture, also known as wellness design, is the fusion of architecture and neuroscience—an emerging field that shapes the built environment to nurture health and wellness. It explores how the body responds physiologically to space, light, sound, and materiality. Rooted in the science of human evolution, neuroarchitecture empowers dSPACE Studio Architects to design artful homes that promote health, wellness, and longevity.
How does the built environment affect the body?
Architecture is a multisensory medium. Every element—light, form, texture, color, proportion, and acoustics—interfaces with the body’s nervous system, eliciting a physiologic response. When these environmental signals are composed with intention, they activate the body’s restorative parasympathetic nervous system, reducing stress hormones, lowering blood pressure and heart rate, and enhancing cognitive function. Wellness design practiced by dSPACE Studio Architects does more than shape space—it modulates human physiology to promote health, calm, and balance.
Can architecture really influence physical health?
Yes. A growing body of scientific research demonstrates that people who live and work in restorative environments experience measurable health benefits—faster recovery rates, lower blood pressure, stronger immune function, and improved mental clarity.
dSPACE Studio Architects integrates principles of neuroarchitecture and wellness design to support the body’s innate capacity to heal, restore, and thrive. By aligning spatial experience with human biology, dSPACE Studio’s contemporary homes become a catalyst for longevity and holistic well-being.
Is neuroarchitecture style or science?
It’s both. The art of architecture meets the science of human biology. dSPACE Studio Architects designs warm modern homes that feel timeless because they align with how humans evolved to live and thrive. When form, light, and material resonate with our physiology, architecture transcends style—it becomes a living expression of harmony between humans and nature.
How is neuroarchitecture applied in home design?
dSPACE Studio Architects incorporates design elements such as proportion, light, materiality, acoustics, and spatial flow to shape how the body responds to the built environment. Rooms oriented toward nature—framing views, capturing daylight, and inviting natural ventilation—reinforce the body’s circadian rhythm, fostering a sense of calm and focus. Spaces layered with tactile materials and organic textures engage the senses, grounding us in the environment. An intentional sequence of openness and enclosure, light and shadow, texture and stillness guides the body through space—cultivating everyday wellness through design.