I’ve always been fascinated by how nature solves design problems. Last summer, I was sitting in my apartment watching ants create this intricate pathway around a spilled drop of honey.…

I was visiting a sensory garden in Portland last month when I noticed something remarkable. A young boy, maybe six or seven, who had been flapping his hands and avoiding…

I’ve noticed something remarkable over my fifteen years of designing spaces for young people—children and teenagers have this uncanny ability to detect when something about their environment isn’t quite right.…

I was knee-deep in mud when I first truly understood how nature heals trauma. It was three weeks after Hurricane Florence had devastated coastal North Carolina, and I’d joined a…

I still remember watching my grandfather’s garden transform after a particularly brutal Minnesota winter. Half his beloved perennials never returned, casualties of temperatures that dropped lower than any in recorded…

I’ve always been fascinated by how our surroundings affect our thinking. It’s not just some vague feeling either—there’s hard science behind it. Back in 2018, I was consulting on a…

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the intersection of my two obsessions: biophilic design and women’s health. It wasn’t until my cousin Emma got pregnant last year that I…

I was sitting in my living room last week, watching the sunset filter through my western windows (that magical 4pm golden hour that still reminds me of childhood), when my…

I’ve always believed that connection to nature shouldn’t be a privilege reserved for the able-bodied. This hit home when my cousin Ella, who uses a wheelchair, visited my newly renovated…

I remember the moment I first truly understood the importance of touch in our connection to nature. I was visiting a friend’s newly renovated apartment – one of those sleek,…