What Design Can Do for Human Health and Community Wellbeing

The short film What Design Can Do, created by Sarah Williams Goldhagen and Sarah Robinson, illustrates how architects, social scientists, and related professionals can create better outcomes for human health and wellbeing in their projects when they focus on the human experience as integral to the design process. The film explores both scientific and evidence-based design and how it can enhance our building environments, making them more supportive and beneficial for individuals and communities.

We invite all designers, engineers, architects, students, and anyone interested in the built environment to reflect on the impact of design on our everyday lives by joining this first event of a three-event series, organized by the AIANY Social Science and Architecture Committee. After opening remarks, we will be a screening the film, followed by a moderated discussion and Q&A with one of the two filmmakers, Sarah Williams Goldhagen, and Ian Wach as moderator.

Speaker:
Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Ph.D., Executive Advisory Board, International Arts + Mind Lab, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, Pedersen Brain Science Institute

Moderator:
Ian Wach, Design and Construction Project Manager, About the Work 

About the Speakers:
Sarah Williams Goldhagen, Ph.D., (Columbia University) and former Harvard professor, is a leading voice in the emerging movement in neuroaesthetics and architectural design. Her book Welcome to Your World: How the Built Environment Shapes Our Lives (HarperCollins), which won a Nautilus Book Award in 2017 for its contribution to social and environmental justice, has made her a sought-after speaker; she lectures frequently and publishes widely about the effects of architecture, landscape, and urban design on human health, cognition, and wellbeing. As The New Republic’s architecture critic for nearly a decade, Goldhagen’s criticism has appeared in The New York Times, Art in America, Architectural Record, The Chronicle of Higher Education, Prospect (UK), and dozens of other publications. She sits on the boards of the Academy of Neuroscience for Architecture (ANFA), the Centre for Conscious Design, and on the Intentional Spaces Advisory Committee of the Johns Hopkins International Arts + Mind Lab. She recently released her first film, What Design Can Do (co-written and produced with Sarah Robinson), which has won five film festival awards.