Introduction: The design of early childhood education and care facilities faces the double challenge of creating a stimulating environment for young children and a supportive workplace for staff. The existing body of research suggests that placemaking strategies serve both requirements. A promising approach to meet placemaking needs is the participation of future occupants in the building design.Methods: We pursued a participatory design study with the community of an Austrian kindergarten aiming to inform the future building renovation. We combined novel cultural fiction probes methods with conventional inquiry methods to gather information from children and teachers about their experience of the built environment. Using thematic and content analyzes we explored placemaking needs from different epistemic perspectives and converged findings through iterative exchange.Results: Returns of children and teachers were interconnected and complementary. From a design-oriented perspective, children’s experience of place was relatable to spatial, temporo-spatial, and acoustic qualities as well as control needs. From a human-centered perspective, teachers’ experience of place was relatable to the needs of feeling embedded, protected, enacted, and socially connected. The converged findings revealed dynamic placemaking processes involving the elements of space, time, and control at different levels.Discussion: Cross-disciplinary collaboration and research consolidation brought forth valuable insights on supportive structures for both children and teachers, facilitated timely knowledge transfer, and converted into design solutions that foster enacted placemaking. Albeit general transferability is limited, findings are interpretable within a solid framework of existing theories, concepts and evidence.

Background: Evidence-based design aims to create healthy environments grounded in scientific data, yet the influence of spatial qualities on cognitive processes remains underexplored. Advances in neuroscience offer promising tools to address this gap while meeting both scientific and practical demands. Consumer-grade mobile EEG devices are increasingly used; however, their lack of transparency complicates output interpretation. Well-established EEG indicators from cognitive neuroscience may offer a more accessible and interpretable alternative. Methods: This feasibility study explored the sensitivity of five established EEG power band ratios to cognitive shifts in response to subtle environmental design experiences. Twenty participants completed two crossover sessions in an office-like setting with nature-inspired versus urban-inspired design elements. Each session included controlled phases of focused on-screen cognitive task and off-screen breaks. Results: Factorial analyses revealed no significant interaction effects of cognitive state and environmental exposure on EEG outcomes. Nonetheless, frontal (θ/β) and frontocentral (β/[α + θ]) ratios showed distinct patterns across cognitive states, with more pronounced contrasts in the nature-inspired compared to the urban-inspired design conditions. Conversely, occipital ([θ + α]/β), (θ/α), and (β/α) ratios remained consistent across exposures. Data triangulation with autonomic nervous system responses and performance metrics supported these observations. Conclusions: The findings suggest that EEG power band ratios can capture brain–environment interactions. However, limitations of consumer-grade EEG devices challenge both scientific rigour and practical application. Refining methodological reliability could improve interpretability, supporting more transparent and robust data-driven design decisions.

Sunlight controls endogen hormone balances and numerous health effects. Therefore, it is important to provide building users, such as schoolchildren, with sufficient daylight. Too much of it, however, leads to overheating, which is why shading systems are used. Consequently, these systems improve energy balance, but might not have positive effects on present people’s health. Within this study, shading systems were installed in classrooms of a middle school: common shading in two rooms, while two others were equipped with shading blades “Schlotterer RETROLux 80D” in an innovative design, reflecting more daylight indoors. The participating classes were divided between rooms with ordinary daylighting (n = 43) and advanced daylighting (n = 42). They spent, on average, 5 days weekly and 5–8 h daily in these classrooms. Saliva samples were collected during three semesters to detect hormonal changes. Questionnaires were collected to obtain more information about the mental alterations and, furthermore, to support the physiological results. A significant reduction in cortisol levels between 6:30 AM and 11:30 AM (p < 0.001) was observed within the group that had advanced daylighting. Questionnaires show that both groups sleep less as study duration increases (p < 0.001 time effect), but only the control group has a concurrent increase in daytime sleepiness according to relative treatment effects. The results show that increased daylight supply indoors leads to a significant greater reduction in cortisol levels of children and that those positive outcomes can be achieved by using innovative technologies for buildings.