ICYMI: Beyond Aesthetics: Biophilic Design & Neuroscience in Healthcare Spaces
This episode revisits Jennifer Kenson’s insights on biophilic design in healthcare, emphasizing how natural elements and neuroscience principles reduce stress and promote healing in medical environments.
In this In Case You Missed It episode of I Hear Design, we revisit Jennifer Kenson’s feature, “Beyond Aesthetics: Biophilic Design & Neuroscience in Healthcare Spaces,” originally published on i+s. You’ll hear how biophilic design in healthcare goes far beyond adding plants or wood tones—it taps into neuroscience and concepts like the “collective unconscious” and prospect-refuge theory to reduce stress responses, support healing, and improve staff well-being. Through the Montefiore Einstein Advanced Care Clinic case study, the episode explores how natural light, organic forms, intuitive wayfinding, and carefully planned staff respite areas can make a space feel genuinely restorative, not clinical.
If you’re an interior designer or architect working in healthcare—or simply interested in evidence-based, human-centered environments—you’ll come away with practical ideas and a stronger language for advocating biophilic strategies with clients: from layout moves that calm the nervous system to materials and lighting decisions that support both patients and care teams over the long term.
Jennifer Kenson, IIDA, NCIDQ, CHID is a Principal of Healthcare Interior Design for FCA. She has focused her career on Healthcare over 25 years. Kenson is a certified Healthcare Interior Designer, member of AAHID, a licensed Interior Designer in Florida, and an IIDA member. Her experience has spanned all types of healthcare project types primarily focused on the east coast, USA and overseas in Qatar. Kenson's ability to communicate clearly and develop relationships with her clients allows for honest and open conversations to truly understand the culture of a client and their priorities. It is this unique understanding of her clients that is instrumental in the development of spaces that they will feel are successful. Kenson believes that the success of a project can only be measured by the people that ultimately use the space. The paths she takes to see her clients’ projects through to their ultimate success is what brings her to the office every day.
