Biophilic Design of the ISS Crew Quarters to Improve Cognitive and Physiological Health Measures

The concept of biophilic design has been around for many decades, but new methods for studying the effects of biophilic design in virtual reality presents unique opportunities for interior designers and architects, while exploring design concepts for spacecrafts and space habitats. The innate love of life that people have is what is known as Biophilia and embracing this concept through patterns in the built environment is known as Biophilic Design. Biophilic design can be achieved through various design elements such as natural materials, water features, biomorphic forms, dynamic and diffuse lighting, and the incorporation of plants and green elements. When a person experiences a space with biophilic design, it can result in cognitive and physiological benefits. There is a critical need to not only integrate biophilia into the design of the interiors of spacecrafts but also to study the benefits of this as well. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess if the integration of biophilic design in a virtual simulation of personal crew quarters on the International Space Station (ISS) can help reduce perceived stress while also reducing heart rate in individuals. The specific aims of the study include the following: a) Identify themes and sub-themes that emerge when participants experience the two environments (current design and proposed design with biophilic interventions), b) Determine if virtual biophilic crew quarters will result in an improvement in physiological measures, and c) Determine if virtual biophilic crew quarters will result in improvement in cognitive measures. A virtual mock-up of the current crew quarters on the ISS was designed to scale and then a second virtual design was created with biophilic elements. The participants (n=6) were asked to follow a think aloud protocol as they carried out specific tasks in the two environments, while wearing a heart rate monitor. Additionally, participants answered survey questions to assess specific measures related to stress and comfort. For the qualitative analysis, a content analysis was carried out to identify themes that emerged in the two environments. For the quantitative analysis, a one-tailed paired t-test was used with the significance level set at 0.05. The qualitative results indicated that participants had more negative emotions about the current crew quarters and more positive emotions in the biophilic environment. The quantitative results included feelings of calm, ease, satisfaction, relaxation, content, steady, tense, strain, frightened, uncomfortable, nervous, and jittery, which were found to show statistically significant differences between the current crew quarters and the proposed biophilic crew quarters (p<0.05). However, heart rate did not show statistically significant differences between the two environments. This study has important implications for the design of space habitats to help improve the health and wellbeing of astronauts and space travelers.