What Does Brain Healthy Design Look Like?
The design of spaces where we live, work, and connect directly influence our brain health—and brain health is the foundation of human well-being and potential.
When our brains function optimally, we can learn more effectively, work more productively, think more creatively and live more fulfilling lives. Brain health encompasses our cognitive abilities, emotional resilience and mental agility throughout our lifetimes.
This isn’t just about individual wellness. Strong brain health builds what we call “brain capital”—the collective cognitive and mental strength that drives societal progress and economic growth. In our increasingly complex world, investing in brain health is a strategic imperative.
The opportunity lies in how we design our environments. By creating spaces that actively support brain health, we can help people realize their full potential while strengthening the cognitive foundation our society depends on. Let’s explore what that can look like in practice.
Boosting Cognitive Function
Our research framework identifies cognitive activity as the most direct path to better brain health. When we engage our minds actively, we strengthen neural networks, reduce stress hormones like cortisol, and boost activity in the prefrontal cortex—the brain region responsible for planning, problem-solving, and self-awareness. Environmental design can either support or hinder this cognitive activity.
Spaces that promote brain health share common features:
- Natural light that regulates our circadian rhythms, improving mood, alertness, and concentration throughout the day.
- Biophilic elements—greenery, nature views, and fractal patterns—reduce stress and create the calm conditions needed for mental restoration.
- Lower noise levels enable the focus required for deep cognitive work, and also the cognitive stress associated with noise.
- Clean air enhances cognitive function, giving our brains the optimal conditions they need to perform.
- Place-making principles like lines of sight, spatial connectivity, and places to gather, can promote social connection that is a key component of brain health
- Optimal visual and sensory complexity can reduce visual stress and cognitive load
By designing spaces with these elements, we create environments where brain health is supported and cognitive activity can flourish.
Wesley Willows, a leading Illinois senior living community, is partnering with HKS to explore how thoughtful design can support residents’ cognitive wellness and brain health. While in its earliest stage, this project intends to reimagine senior living as a platform for lifelong neuroplasticity, creating spatial experiences that protect and enhance cognitive function as residents age. The design approach focuses on four key strategies: spaces that restore focus and attention to reduce stress and support memory; quiet areas for rest and reflection, including contemplative gardens and lounges, that promote calm and counteract overstimulation; intergenerational gathering spaces that stimulate executive function, creativity, and decision-making through play and social interaction; and enriched environments featuring art, natural textures, varied lighting, and acoustic balance to promote learning and brain plasticity through multi-sensory engagement.
Salt Lake City’s Astra Tower aims to redefine high-rise living as a platform for urban brain health. Thanks to a robust air handling system with hospital-grade filtration, the tower acts as a living air purifier for both residents and the wider community, enhancing cognitive clarity and creating a net-positive contribution to city-wide air quality. Biophilic design elements, expansive terraces, and landscaped amenities connect residents to nature, supporting emotional balance and stress recovery. A one-acre network of indoor and outdoor wellness spaces—including a park, yoga/spin studios, pool, sauna, and rooftop gardens—encourages movement, mindfulness, and restorative mental breaks throughout the day. Low-emitting, non-toxic materials reduce exposure to neurotoxic compounds, promoting healthier indoor environments and long-term brain and respiratory well-being.
Recognizing that enriched environments [with physical, social, sensory and cognitive stimuli], stimulates new neuron growth (neurogenesis), can improve executive function, and reduce anxiety and depression in children and adolescents, StationSoccer in Atlanta offers free, accessible fields near local transit nodes. By reviving under-utilized transit-adjacent sites in historically underserved neighborhoods (rather than creating separate or distant parks), the project lowers barriers to movement and boosts opportunities for children to practice decision making, coordination, teamwork, social interaction, peer negotiation and other critical executive functions that drive brain development and resilience. What’s more, the sites also support art, community gardens, learning spaces and cultural expression opportunities, ensuring a spectrum of physical, creative, social and educational engagement to support lifelong brain health.
HKS’ Asia Pacific headquarters in Singapore is designed as a “cognitive gym,” turning the workplace into a living laboratory for brain-healthy design. Designed for neurodiverse work styles, the office offers flexible zones for focus, social collaboration, ideation, rest and reflection—helping employees regulate stimulation and sustain cognitive flow throughout the day. Natural daylight, biophilic materials and locally commissioned artwork support mood regulation and creative engagement, engaging multiple senses to strengthen memory, emotional balance and inspiration. Sensory-rich materials and intuitive spatial organization reduce cognitive load, allowing employees to focus on problem-solving and innovation rather than environmental stressors.
Designing for Neurodiversity and Inclusivity
Brain health should be applicable and accessible to all, which means designing for the range of differences in individual brain function and behavioral traits across the cognitive spectrum. In practice, this can show up as:
- sensory-friendly zones that offer low visual complexity and minimize sensory overload to foster calm;
- adaptable spaces that can be modified for different sensory or cognitive needs; and
- intuitive navigation through clear wayfinding that reduces stress and confusion.
The need for personalization and adaptability allows individuals to choose spaces that align with their mental and emotional comfort.
The Gerald R. Ford International Airport Sensory Room in Grand Rapids, Michigan, is designed specifically to support neurodivergent travelers and reduce airline travel stressors through four distinct zones that reinforce traveler autonomy, predictability and cognitive control. A Transition Zone welcomes users to the space with a full-height Lake Michigan mural, signaling a shift from the overstimulating concourse to a more controlled and serene environment. In the Respite Zone, dimmed lighting, soft colors, fiber-optic “fireflies” and Adirondack chairs surround a faux fire pit to create a tranquil, Michigan-inspired retreat. This area is complemented by two private immersive rooms, where guests can customize light and soundscapes to help regulate sensory input. An Active Zone encourages movement and tactile exploration, providing proprioceptive input and safe energy release that help regulate a traveler’s nervous system. In the Airplane Simulation Zone, travelers rehearse boarding in a full-scale fuselage built from real aircraft parts, reducing uncertainty and supporting cognitive rehearsal—an evidence-based technique proven to decrease anxiety by 61% among users.
HKS designed its first Sensory Well-being Hub in 2017 at Chicago’s Lane Tech College Prep High School to help neurodiverse high school students recover from sensory stressors and refocus on classroom learning. A demountable framing structure resembles a high-tech playset, providing modular spaces for activities ranging from quiet to stimulation that allow each student to create an experience that works for them. Audio, visual, kinesthetic and tactile features including a touch-screen monitor, color-changing lights, textured panels, musical instruments, a Light Brite wall, a peg wall, and a rubber tubing curtain help students reset from hyper- or hypo-stimulation.
Fostering Social Connections and Collaboration
Brain-heathy environments actively nurture social connections and reduce feelings of isolation, while also ensuring access to quieter, private areas when needed. In practice, this can show up as:
- Communal spaces such as open seating areas, collaborative workspaces or multi-purpose zones that encourage both planned and spontaneous interactions.
- Technology-ready environments can keep brains engaged while also allowing for plug-and-play customization, creating opportunities for collaboration without sacrificing autonomy.
In North Richland Hills, Texas, Smithfield Elementary School is anchored on inclusive design that includes community-oriented gathering spaces, flexible learning environments and local visual references to strengthen social-emotional health and identity. Throughout the school, thoughtfully placed active, playful and respite zones encourage movement, social interaction and mental breaks, helping restore attention and support executive function across a full school day. Multi-functional spaces give students and teachers choice in how they use their environment, thus promoting autonomy, regulation, and cognitive flexibility. While a two-story Learning Commons provides natural light and connections to outdoors to support attention restoration and emotional well-being for all learners, a dedicated sensory well-being hub and outdoor sensory path allow students with diverse sensory and cognitive needs to play, retreat and recharge within their own comfort levels, reducing overload and enhancing focus.
CoreLogic’s workplace strategy, deployed across more than 12 locations is designed to reshape how teams think, recover, and collaborate, creating moments of cognitive reset and renewed creativity throughout the workday. Each site’s strategy reflects the cognitive profile of its teams, aligning design with how employees actually focus, ideate, and problem-solve across different locations. Tech-enabled rapid-ops zones enhance focus and responsiveness by reducing friction between digital workflows and physical space, supporting precision and high-performance thinking. Brain-break salons and open perch seating provide micro-restorative settings for mental reset—short, spontaneous breaks that restore attention and prevent fatigue. The perch seating also enables “alone together” moments of light social connection. Meanwhile, collaboration hubs and branded touchpoints foster social connection and shared purpose, building psychological safety and team trust essential to collective intelligence.
Ensuring a Sense of Safety
Feeling safe is essential to well-being, not just because it reduces stress, anxiety and hypervigilance, but also because it allows space for higher cognitive functions like problem solving, creativity and learning. What makes us feel safe can be both overt and subtle, ranging from intuitive wayfinding, well-lit pathways and open sightlines that allow us to feel a sense of control and orientation, to design solutions that offer occupants a sense of ownership and choice, especially when they are in scenarios that inherently feel out of their control like a hospital stay.
In Fort Worth, Texas, the AYA Cancer Unit at Baylor Scott & White All Saints Medical Center offers uplifting, autonomy-supportive spaces that help young patients regain a sense of control and identity throughout their treatment journey. Customizable rooms, each with its own color palette and movable wall graphics, empower patients to shape their environment—transforming clinical space into a personal sanctuary. Cairn-inspired wall imagery, allowing patients to stack and rearrange colorful stones, turns healing into a visible, tactile narrative that celebrates milestones and fosters emotional resilience. To further boost a patient’s sense of safety, integrated Murphy beds make family presence an effortless part of care, nurturing connection, security, and emotional regulation—critical for cognitive and psychosocial health during treatment.
Inspired by Harvey Milk’s legacy, San Francisco International Airport’s Harvey Milk Terminal 1 welcomes travelers with an environment that supports clarity, dignity and collective wellbeing. Travelers are greeted with calm, restorative conditions thanks to daylight-filled concourses, optimized acoustics and a “quiet wow” approach that replaces the chaos of traditional airports with a sensory experience where reduced mechanical noise, soft materials and intuitive wayfinding guide the brain gently. Diverse seating types, family-friendly play zones, lactation rooms and quiet spaces accommodate a wide range of sensory and emotional needs, supporting comfort, autonomy and cognitive ease for every traveler. All-gender restrooms, animal companion amenities, and universally accessible layouts model equity in design, lowering social anxiety and reinforcing psychological safety for all users.
HKS remains committed to creating brain-healthy spaces across the globe. Stay on top of the latest research and developments by co-founding the Building Brains Coalition, a first-of-its-kind initiative to connect build environment professionals to those in the fields of neuroscience, psychology, climate science and public health. We are also a proud member of the Pedersen Foundation Collaborative working with the Milken Institute, ANFA, and IAM Lab, on projects like Project WHY that seek to unpack the relationship between neuroscience and architecture, brain and building, in ways that construct social impact and value.
Together, coalition members are reimagining how we design spaces to foster resilience, well-being and cognitive thriving.
