Real World: Exploring The Built And Created Environment

​We explore the history of urban farming and whether empty office buildings may be the next frontier. ​We examine cost, necessary resources, and output – in the form of produce – to assess whether urban farming can fill your dinner plate.

Are you on the urban bandwagon? Many of today’s urban advocates urge people to move to densely packed urban environments, urging it as a social good. We explore the link between density and creativity.  We examine how ordinary people have voted with their feet to sort out the density conundrum – and leave you with ideas for doing the same.

We explore how the physical design of many American prisons may increase undesirable behavior and even cause illness. We learn that simple design choices like light, color, sound and the size of spaces all affect the way we behave in any physical environment.

We explore the history of telephone-like poles in the ancient world and discover how they came to be so prominent in the American landscape. We learn that these apparently tumbledown structures – more than 100 million – are highly engineered structures that showcase shared networks to keep us all connected, and are also creating new habitats for some non-human friends.

We explore how light in healthcare settings can retard or accelerate healing – from patients ranging from infants in ICUs to patients with psychiatric disorders. We consider what you can do to obtain maximum benefit for yourself or a loved one from any hospital stay.

We explore the controversy surrounding many of today’s street lights as it relates to our circadian rhythms, night-time light exposure, LEDs, and the safety of road conditions.

Today, we explore wayfinding – our ability to navigate to chosen destinations in the physical world. We examine the challenges of a special population – those with Alzheimer’s dementia—and how the physical design of space using  color, objects and layout can help these individuals stay active and engaged in our world. We see how we can all benefit from these design cues.

This week we explore the geometry, meaning, and physical effects – including negative health consequences -- of the chairs we commonly sit upon.

​We explore 200,000 year old mattresses, medieval finery, space-age constructions, the social import of bedding and new thinking about the best ways to sleep.

We begin a three-part series on American roads and pedestrian safety. We examine first how vehicle design choices after traffic fatalities and consider what you can do to increase safety for everyone – both as a pedestrian and as a driver.

In this episode, we explore roadway regulations – the invisible infrastructure that shapes our roadways.    We see how regulations come into being – not through an examined, competitive process – and how these regulations may increase danger on our roadways

We explore how the physical design of America’s roads encourages speed and increases deaths. We next consider simple, cost-effective ways to modify the design of existing roadways to make people safer.