What I Learned About Healing Spaces from a Medical Waiting Room That Didn’t Feel Like Torture
Last month I had to take my wife to a new specialist about an hour from home. I was dreading it – you know how those medical office visits go.…
Why My Latest Off-Grid House Project Changed Everything I Thought I Knew About Energy Independence
Three weeks ago, I’m standing in Maria Santos’ kitchen at 7 AM, watching her make coffee using electricity generated by her own solar panels, with water she collected from last…
How a Desert Farm Taught Me Everything About Real Self-Sufficiency
Last April, I drove out to this farm near Tucson after getting an invitation from a woman named Maria who claimed she’d built what she called a “closed loop paradise.”…
Budget Biophilic Workspace Optimization: My $200 Productivity Experiments
Honestly, some of my best productivity improvements have come from workspace experiments where I spent maybe $200 total. I’m not kidding. While people obsess over thousand-dollar ergonomic setups and smart…
Why My Kids’ School Finally Gets It Right (And How Your District Can Too)
I never thought I’d be the parent who gets excited about classroom lighting, but here we are. Last month, I found myself sitting in my daughter’s third-grade classroom in Portland,…
When Old Houses Meet Modern Know-How: My Experience with Restoration Experts
You know what I’ve learned after thirty-eight years in the same house? There’s a big difference between contractors who just fix things and craftsmen who understand what they’re working with.…
What I Learned About Restoration Design Centers (And Why They’re Not What You Think)
You know what I never expected to become an expert on? Restoration design centers. But when you’re a dad trying to fix up a 1960s split-level while learning about biophilic…
Restorative environment design: How Nature Restores Wellbeing
# Why Some Spaces Make You Feel Like Crap (And What I Learned From Fixing Mine) Yesterday morning, I was messing around with my little tabletop fountain again – you…
When My Kid’s School Called About “Environmental Stress” – What I Learned About Spaces That Actually Help People Heal
So I got this weird call from my daughter’s school counselor last month. She mentioned they’d been looking into what they called “environmental factors” affecting kids with anxiety and ADHD,…
I Tracked Productivity in 12 Green Towers – Here’s What Actually Works
Last month I found myself 47 stories up in Milan’s Bosco Verticale, pressed against floor-to-ceiling windows while watching maintenance crews tend to living walls that cascade down like green waterfalls.…
What I Learned About Bringing Nature Into Offices (And Why It Actually Works)
I’ve become that person who notices everything wrong with office spaces. Can’t help it anymore. Last month I was visiting my friend Sarah at her downtown office – one of…
I Analyzed Urban Biophilic Design Data and Found Something Interesting About Productivity in Cities
Three months ago, I found myself standing in what used to be a concrete plaza in downtown Portland, watching city workers install this pop-up forest installation. I know this sounds…
Biophilic Design That Actually Works: Real Spaces, Real Results for Families
I keep coming back to something that happened when I visited the Amazon Spheres in Seattle with my kids last year. We were there for vacation, and I figured I’d…
I Spent Six Months Tracking India’s Biophilic Revolution – The Productivity Data Is Mind-Blowing
I was standing in a Mumbai office lobby last month with my laptop out, timing how long people spent near this massive living wall by the elevators. Sounds weird, I…
How Three Families Completely Changed Their Lives With Simple Biophilic House Changes (And What I Learned From Their Stories)
I’ve been following these amazing home transformation stories for a while now, and honestly, they’ve taught me more about biophilic design than any article or research study ever could. Sometimes…