May 24, 2016 by

Design News You Can Use – Follow Your Bliss Edition

Looking for a major dose of news you can use? This month, Workplace Strategist Joelle Jach looks at what makes you happy. Love naps? Cool buildings? Playing with blocks? A nice, comfy chair? We’ve got you covered.

Built to Stress: Studies have shown that architecture can have a powerful impact on our brains – so what’s the effect of boring buildings? According to researchers, boring buildings make us cognitively disengaged, which can cause stress down the line. Better to stick with the good stuff.

Old news: Good workplace ergonomics isn’t a new topic, but who knew how old it really was? As a 1602 woodcut illustration shows, people have been interested in sound working advice for a while.

Sleep on it: If you’ve ever pulled an all-nighter or had a sleepless night, you know that lack of sleep can have dramatic effects on well-being and cognitive function. With that in mind, McKinsey proposes that sleep awareness programs can create better workers and leaders.

Catch some z’s: Ever find yourself wishing you could be a kid again, if only for regularly scheduled naptime? We know that sleep is good for us, but it can be hard to catch a nap without waking up feeling tired. Here’s how long to nap for the biggest boost in alertness, memory and rest.

Material girl: It can sometimes be hard to justify the importance of an expensive, high-performance or artistic material in a space. But materials make up so much more than just the look of a space – they do a lot to contribute to the heart of a project as well.

Don’t reinvent the wheel: Many of us can probably name at least one well-designed city – and perhaps one that doesn’t quite make the cut. In CityLab, Jeff Speck argues that the best way to design city streets is to go with the tried and true.

No time to lose: If you’ve ever gotten sucked into checking your work email hours after leaving the office, you’re not alone. In fact, U.S. employees spend a month’s worth of time each year checking work email outside office hours. Talk about inbox fatigue.

Brick by brick: Many architects joke about being Lego aficionados as children, but for master Lego builder Adam Tucker, that fascination is alive and well. Former architect Tucker has created scale models of some of the world’s architectural wonders out of everyone’s favorite toy bricks.

Beauty in unlikely places: We’ve all seen them, but mostly ignored them – the bollards lining buildings or dividing walkways. Photographer Andrew Choate has examined bollards around the world, discovering their unique purpose and strange beauty across urban landscapes.