Design for Resilience

More than just a backdrop, your home is the missing pillar of health that can quietly build or erode wellness

- Nikki Hunt

At this year’s Singapore Mental Health Conference, I shared a surprising idea: your home may be just as important to resilience as diet, sleep, or exercise. More than 90 per cent of our lives are spent indoors, yet most wellness advice overlooks the role of our surroundings in supporting our well-being.

Neuroaesthetics, the science of how environments affect the brain, reveals that our homes are not neutral. We may think we are modern, but our biology hasn't changed in 50,000 years. We are still wired for the forests and skies our ancestors knew. Yet today we live in rectilinear boxes of artificial light, still air, and constant digital noise. They may look sleek and feel comfortable, but to our ancient biology, they are unfamiliar terrain.