Home for the Holidays: thinking about healthy design
**Guest blog by Buckhead resident and architect, Matt Finn**
Between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day my family and I can feel pulled in more directions than we can go – if we’re not careful, the holidays can be stressful. It’s a time of year that takes a hefty commitment of intention to keep from becoming entangled in a never-ending list of to-do’s.
I spend a lot of time thinking about where and how we spend our time – and the affect these have on our health and wellbeing. While its always true that environment affects behavior, the holidays really highlight this as we’re bombarded with things competing for our attention.
We can’t control the world outside our home so my wife, Stephanie, and I balance this with purposeful decisions we make within our home and choose to enjoy a lot of our free time here. It’s a literal respite from the flashing lights and advertisements we find a lot of other places.
Stephanie is an integrative Pediatric Nurse Practitioner, and aside from being a great partner for raising our daughter (she can answer that most-important question: “Do we need to call an ambulance!?”), she knows the design of our home is important for our health and wellbeing. Stephanie says, “the emerging science of neuroplasticity teaches us that the way we feel and think can change associations and pathways in our brains, so creating optimal spaces for health and wellness need to be carefully considered.”
One reality of living within a small footprint is that all the spaces in our home (and the objects within) serve many purposes. Given our professional attention to health and healthy design, I’d like to share some of what we do to create an atmosphere that gently reminds us to move towards the feeling and meaning of Christmas.
In our living room, the television isn’t often the focal point of our family’s attention, but we arranged the furniture for the ergonomics of watching Frozen… again… and again… and again! We compliment this omnipresent emblem of tech with our Christmas tree, which we use as the ultimate decorative lamp! We place it where our side table usually goes, right next to our sofa. We make good use of the soft glow that encourages us to get comfy, go analog and read books.
We fill our advent calendar with “Acts of Service” and locate it between our bedroom and kitchen; it literally put pause in the morning migration to the breakfast table. And during this season our coffee table hosts a wooden nativity set that seems to create time just for its own use.
We have different strategies for other seasons that work well when the weather’s warmer. The variety of activities that we do together, in the same place, adds a nice rhythm to the year and puts us in the driver’s seat to be purposeful about living the lives we want.
As the new year approaches, I’d encourage you to consider where and how you spend your time. Put yourself in control to have a healthy and well 2019!
About the author
Matthew A. Finn, AIA, NCARB, LEED AP
Matt, an Atlanta native and graduate of Kennesaw State University, is an architect and Founder of Cognitive Design, a research-based design firm that works with a curated network of experts from outside the design profession to improve people’s lives by studying the complex relationships between people and place.
Matt’s interdisciplinary research and innovative thinking have been recognized by Healthcare Design magazine, who named Matt the 2016 HCD 10 Researcher. Additionally, Matt’s work has been featured by numerous academic institutions, media outlets and conferences including the Academy of Neuroscience For Architecture and the American Institute of Architects.
Matt and his wife, Stephanie, live in a condo in Garden Hills with their daughter. Matt says “We love living in Buckhead, we live in a very small complex, enjoy knowing our neighbors and all our community has to offer!” On the weekends you might spot the Finns at the park, pool or enjoying one of the many great healthy restaurants and coffee shops nearby.
