Applied NeuroArts for Behavioral Health

The Art & Neuroscience of Illusions for Patient Wellness

Sky Factory’s design framework is based on Neuroaesthetics. Our artists capture, compose, and frame biophilic lines of sight in enclosed interiors to provide therapeutic vantage points that trigger a deep, autonomic relaxation response.

Our Open Sky Compositions and OpenView wild nature landscapes are designed to provide more than a visual connection to nature—they generate perceived open space. Sky Factory’s biophilic illusions of nature feature both Prospect & Refuge, a dramatic change of scale that is most restorative in behavioral health settings.

From our research-verified Luminous SkyCeilings that create a healing and welcoming environment, to our elegant, OpenView Luminous Virtual Windows and dynamic Digital Cinema portals, our biophilic installations generate. Discover how our transformative solutions can create nurturing spaces that facilitate relaxation, social connection, and overall happiness for seniors in your community.

Trusted by the Best: Touchstone Awards–Platinum

A Therapeutic Feature for Supervised Spaces

Sky Factory’s evidence-based design (EBD) approach to both artistic craftsmanship and research-verified positive outcomes for patients and staff has generated demand for our installations in behavioral health projects recognized as benchmarks for their typology by The Center for Health Design.

Eating Recovery Center—Willow, a 72-bed behavioral health facility specializing in eating disorders earned the highest distinction in evidence-based design: a Touchstone Award—Platinum, the highest level of achievement. Boulder Associates, the architectural firm behind the design, incorporated Sky Factory’s Revelation SkyCeilings into its SPA-like bathrooms to create a comforting line of sight in an otherwise emotionally charged environment.

For eating disorders patients, bathrooms are associated with painful memories.

Hence, in order to provide a reassuring and hopeful outlook, the designers incorporated a focal point over the sinks—a 6’ x 10’ illusory view to the sky, framed by lush foliage—that helps patients cope with a daily morning routine that includes collecting urine samples, supervised weigh-ins, and toilet checks. Learn more about this project.

Positive Outcomes Backed by Published Research

Luminous SkyCeilings Reduce Acute Stress and Anxiety

Our fMRI-tested spatial compositions create a palpable experience of openness that enliven both our memories of nature’s vastness and nurture our internal resilience to dissipate agitation, aggression and burnout. Published in the Health Environments Research & Design Journal (2014, 2015), Sky Factory’s photographic Open Sky Compositions are the only overhead photography of its kind to have been the subject of two peer reviewed studies.

Sky Factory installations reduce acute stress by over 50% and anxiety by over 35%. By engaging areas of the brain involved in spatial cognition and depth perception, Sky Factory’s illusory scenes—overhead or before the observer,alter occupant experience by facilitating autonomic self-regulation.

Our innate sense of open space is not only visual; it’s proprioceptive and exteroceptive, cognitive and pre-cognitive, engaging focused as well as peripheral vision in an integral manner that soothes and calms both body, mind, and spirit.

Sky Factory’s nature imagery is captured, composed, and installed to create the most credible illusion of perceived open space as a healing architectural feature.

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Sensory-Rich Environments for Patient Wellness

A Soothing Oasis for Crisis Stabilization & Counseling

A mental health crisis requires a more settled environment than a standard emergency department which can be distressing as incoming patients face both long waits and are exposed to others in acute distress. Therefore, creating an environment that provides a calming atmosphere sets the stage for incoming patients to receive counseling and intermediary psychiatric care right.

Dignity Mercy San Juan Medical Center commissioned a new 3,200 square foot Crisis Stabilization Unit (CSU) where behavioral health patients who first receive a medical examination in the ED can be transferred to the adjacent CSU where a less institutional design provides a home-like environment. Biophilic design patterns include soft earth tones for the flooring, warm amber and orange patterns on the waiting area walls. New arrivals are invited to take a seat in comfortable blue and taupe armchairs underneath a set of overhead virtual skylights (4’ x 8’ Revelation SkyCeilings) that provide a reassuring line of sight.

Many behavioral health facilities strive to build an empathetic environment that de-stigmatizes the space and enables patients to develop a sense of community who may be at different stages of recovery. Many of the shared spaces, from the in-house lounge or cafeteria to the counseling or group activities room. The location of many of these areas do not have access to commanding vistas or green spaces, making an illusory landscape or overhead sky view most valuable.

Restorative Architectural Features for Person-Centric Care

Circadian Support for Interiors

IRIS Tunable SkyCeilings, a dynamic sky illusion that mimics the sunrise-to-sunset arc, uses patent-pending algorithms to capture the richness of the sky’s colorful range and its luminance variability. IRIS is a patented LED illumination system designed to bring our overhead illusory skies to life through two patented algorithms: PRiSM and DiAL.

PRiSM provides location-specific sunrise-to-sunset modulations that mimic the diurnal progression of daylight from warm to cool light and back to warm illumination while DiAL modulates illumination intensity in way that supports focused attention and provides sensory-rich stimulation. Both systems are customized to each photographic Open Sky Composition (image panel).