Psychological Design

Hi!

I'm Jan Golembiewski

I am a world leader in researching architectural design psychology. My focus is on the relationship between experiences and the neurological mechanisms that cause them. Psychologically speaking, our physical environment is like an extension of our brains. It leads us to certain actions, prevents us from others, it makes us feel things, changes our behavior and even moderates health. In fact, as far as health is concerned, it’s our first layer of defense. But when the environment fails us, we suffer. It makes tasks difficult or dull or intimidating. And it puts pressure on us mentally and physically, so much so that our motivation and health can become casualties of poorly designed workplaces, homes and urban environments. So here my organization Psychological Design comes into action. We’re architects with a difference. We are deeply immersed in environmental psychology & and we uniquely understand how our physical environments make us tick.

The Podcasts

Good design improves
Why Do We Need Psychologically Good Design?

Psychologically speaking, our physical environment is like an extension of our brains – it leads us to certain actions, prevents us from others, it makes us feel things, changes our behaviour and even moderates health. In fact, as far as health is concerned, it’s our first layer of defence. But when the environment fails us, we suffer – it makes tasks difficult or dull or intimidating. And it puts pressure on us mentally and physically – so much so that our motivation and health can become casualties of poorly designed workplaces, homes and urban environments. Little things that most architects know about help – views into nature are a well-cited example. They improve recovery times in hospitals by 10 or more percent, and interestingly a bit of greenery fundamentally improves outlook and behaviour. But it’s rarely possible to plant a forest outside our windows, so detailed design inside our buildings help also.

Psychological Design is geared to help our clients understand the nexus between health, behaviour and architecture. Good design choices have been found to reduce violence, absenteeism and improve social contact, creativity and even sales. For hundreds of years, architects have made assertions about how their wonderful ideas will modify behaviour and otherwise benefit property owners, but Psychological Design is big on the detail and rigorous architectural science. In this website, we’ve included thousands of pages of peer-reviewed original research. No other architects anywhere have dived deeper into the science or have published nearly as much. So please come in and take a look around. We bring this to the world for free, so you too can benefit from our research, deep insight and approaches to architecture. must go before the podcasts etc. It’s who we are, what we do.

Some Relevant Scientific Articles

SCHIZOPHRENIA: A COMPREHENSIVE META-HYPOTHESIS

No Comments

Abstract After generations of enquiry, and currently around 6150 papers being published annually (mostly focusing on the minutiae of the syndrome) there is a normative expectation that the pathogenesis of…

Read More »

Urban Mental Health

No Comments

PREFACE The overall proportion of people living in urban areas has been increasing rapidly, and the speed and extent of urbanization has been astonishing. The concept of cities has given…

Read More »
Our Expertise

Dementia &
Aged Care

When we design for ageing, we design for dementia – because at it’s best, architecture for dementia is vibrant, generous and forgiving: the things we feel we’ve earned after a long and full life!

Commercial
Architecture

Our strong understanding of theory of architecture, behaviour and the moods of building users makes it far easier to predict successes and failures. This can mean a real advantage for those businesses who are willing to take the plunge and invest in workplaces.

Design for
Autism

It’s a mistake to think that cognition and cognitive deficits cause behaviour. We react to our circumstances: we all react poorly to environments that are aversive – the sound of scratching on a chalkboard, the smell of fumes or strobing lights.

Earthbuilt logo
Earthbuilt Technology

Dr. Golembiewski has recently been involved in a new venture called Earthbuilt®. It has a  mission to resolve the global climate crisis by disrupting the world’s most recalcitrant most polluting industries: construction and infrastructure. Check it out here.

Your environment
and your brain

Psychological Design is geared to help our clients understand the nexus between health, behavior and architecture. Good design choices have been found to reduce violence, absenteeism and improve social contact, creativity and even sales.

For hundreds of years, architects have made assertions about how their wonderful ideas will modify behavior and otherwise benefit property owners, but Psychological Design is big on the detail and rigorous architectural science. Here, we’ve included thousands of pages of peer-reviewed original research. No other architects anywhere have dived deeper into the science or have published nearly as much.

As Seen In

The science of design

Vogue Living, March-April 2019, p. 36-38, Vogue Living

The end of the forever house

ABC Radio National Blueprint for living, 29 July, 9:00am, Jonathon Green

Moving house can be more stressful than divorce

Channel 7 Weekend Sunrise, 5 August, 9:20am, Channel 7

How to increase natural lighting

Your Home, Playbooks (Accross Fairfax Media), 09 Jan, p. 32, Linda Hyunh

Psychological Design is geared to help our clients understand the nexus between health, behavior and architecture. Good design choices have been found to reduce violence, absenteeism and improve social contact, creativity and even sales.

For hundreds of years, architects have made assertions about how their wonderful ideas will modify behavior and otherwise benefit property owners, but Psychological Design is big on the detail and rigorous architectural science. Here, we’ve included thousands of pages of peer-reviewed original research. No other architects anywhere have dived deeper into the science or have published nearly as much.

Feedback from My Clients

Affiliations With

profile-pic

Ready to work with me?

Jan Golembiewski and his team at Psychological Design is looking to work on projects like yours. Whether you have a specific health issue and you want to improve the environment to mitigate its effects, or if you need better spaces for your own benefit – perhaps to create, communicate, or even sell. We understand the dynamics of environment and behaviour like no other architects and we can answer your brief.

PLEASE GIVE US A CALL OR DROP US AN EMAIL

Scroll to Top